George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., during a Bloomberg Technology television interview at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 26, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
CrowdStrike shares dropped nearly 9% in extended trading on Tuesday after the cybersecurity software provider issued disappointing earnings guidance.
Here’s what the company reported compared to LSEG estimates:
- Earnings per share: $1.03. The number doesn’t to appear to be comparable to analysts’ estimates.
- Revenue: $1.06 billion vs. $1.03 billion
Revenue increased 25% from $845.3 million a year earlier, and the company posted a net loss of $92.3 billion, or 37 cents per share. In the year-ago period, the company posted net income of $53.7 million, or 22 cents per share.
For the year, CrowdStrike said it expects earnings, excluding some items, to range between $3.33 and $3.45 per share, falling short of the $4.42 expected by analysts polled by LSEG. First-quarter earnings are expected to be between 64 cents and 66 cents per share, versus the average estimate of 95 cents.
Despite the after-hours drop, CrowdStrike topped some metrics from Wall Street. The company posted $4.24 billion in annual recurring revenue, reflecting 23% growth. That topped the $4.21 billion estimate from analysts surveyed by StreetAccount and included $224 million in net annual recurring revenue.
Revenue guidance was roughly in line with estimates. CrowdStrike said it expects revenue of between $4.74 billion and $4.81 billion for the year, versus an LSEG estimate of $4.77 billion.
The earnings release comes almost eight months after a technology update from the company led to a global IT outage that grounded flights, disrupted businesses and led to class action lawsuits.
CEO George Kurtz said in the press release that artificial intelligence is becoming more important in stopping cyberattacks.
“As businesses of all sizes rapidly adopt AI, stopping the breach necessitates cybersecurity’s AI-native platform,” Kurtz said.
