Latest news with #GeorgeKurtz
Axios
15-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
CrowdStrike touts product resilience a year after global outages
CrowdStrike says it has spent the year since its global outage doubling down on improving the resilience of its security products. Why it matters: The cybersecurity giant's response to the outage helped it avoid mass customer exits and detrimental financial hits. What they're saying:"We're a stronger company today than we were a year ago," CEO George Kurtz wrote on LinkedIn. "The work continues. The mission endures. And we're moving forward: stronger, smarter, and even more committed than ever." Flashback: On July 19 last year, CrowdStrike pushed a defective update to its software that crashed millions of Windows systems around the world and left them with the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death." Thousands of flights were canceled. Health care systems canceled outpatient operations. Schools canceled classes, and government agencies couldn't conduct basic services. Zoom in: In a blog post yesterday, CrowdStrike president Mike Sentonas wrote that the company spent the last year focused on making its platform more resilient to operational issues like the July 19 outage. Many of the improvements CrowdStrike made to its products rely on predicting potential problems — rather than responding to incidents once they happen. "It's about creating intelligence that responds dynamically to changing conditions, diverse environments, and evolving threats," Sentonas wrote. Customers now have increased control over what updates and configurations they deploy and when they run them. What's next: Sentonas added that the company is planning to hire a new chief resilience officer to oversee future improvements to this work.
CNBC
14-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Morgan Stanley says 'take a breather' on CrowdStrike — why Jim Cramer disagrees
Jim Cramer on Monday brushed off Morgan Stanley's downgrade of CrowdStrike , viewing the cybersecurity giant's recent dip as a potential buying opportunity. "Morgan Stanley may downgrade this but I want to get in on the downgrade and get in on the discount," Cramer said Monday during the Investing Club's Morning Meeting. Shares of CrowdStrike dipped nearly 2% in the premarket Monday but stabilized by midday, trading at roughly $477 apiece. Morgan Stanley took CrowdStrike to equal weight from buy-equivalent overweight, while slightly increasing its price target on the stock to $495 from $490. After a 50% stock rise since April, analysts called it "time to take a breather," citing its high valuation that reflects lofty expectations. CrowdStrike's stock trades at 21 times its expected 2026 sales, well above the average of 12 times for large software companies. That suggests investors expect near-perfect performance. While the analysts still see CrowdStrike as a long-term leader in cybersecurity with strong artificial intelligence tailwinds, they said "the near-term opportunity appears fully priced in," referring to the second half reacceleration that CEO George Kurtz has guided over the past couple quarters. Concerns about CrowdStrike's valuation have lately been a concern on Wall Street. Yet investors are willing to pay a premium for the stock for its fast growth and potential. Morgan Stanley's downgrade comes just before the one-year anniversary of CrowdStrike's infamous July 19 IT glitch, when a routine software update led to one of the largest IT outages in history, causing millions of Windows computers to crash around the globe. When we initiated CrowdStrike in October 2024, we viewed it as a turnaround story following the botched software update. The risk proved to be manageable after CEO Kurtz fought to reassure clients and introduced customer package deals to retain impacted clients and rebuild trust. As a result, the company did not lose a lot of business. Jim remains confident that as those packages roll over, the customers will pay full price. That suggests "the second half is going to be much stronger than the first half," Jim said Monday on "Squawk on the Street." Cramer is scheduled to interview George Kurtz on "Mad Money" Monday evening and is expected to get the latest on how business is faring one year later. One area of concern is the budget cut back for cybersecurity by the federal government. Cyber stocks sold off last Thursday on a report that President Donald Trump's 2026 budget cuts cyber spending by over $1 billion from 2024 levels. CrowdStrike dropped 5%. Shares of fellow cybersecurity leader and Club holding Palo Alto Networks fell 6.8%, while Zscaler dropped 6.4%. We don't agree with this decision, given the rise in geopolitical tensions and nation states trying to hack one another. But we're comforted by the fact the CrowdStrike has reiterated time and time again that with bad actors working overtime companies and governments need, and will pay for, CrowdStrike's cyber solutions. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRWD, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Unpacking Q1 Earnings: CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) In The Context Of Other Cybersecurity Stocks
Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company's progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) and the best and worst performers in the cybersecurity industry. Cybersecurity continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments within software for good reason. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing rising cybersecurity risks. Businesses are accelerating adoption of cloud-based software, moving data and applications into the cloud to save costs while improving performance. This migration has opened them to a multitude of new threats, like employees accessing data via their smartphone while on an open network, or logging into a web-based interface from a laptop in a new location. The 9 cybersecurity stocks we track reported a satisfactory Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts' consensus estimates by 1.2% while next quarter's revenue guidance was in line. While some cybersecurity stocks have fared somewhat better than others, they have collectively declined. On average, share prices are down 3.1% since the latest earnings results. Founded by George Kurtz, the former CTO of the antivirus company McAfee, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cybersecurity software that protects companies from breaches and helps them detect and respond to cyber attacks. CrowdStrike reported revenues of $1.10 billion, up 19.8% year on year. This print was in line with analysts' expectations, and overall, it was a satisfactory quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates but revenue guidance for next quarter meeting analysts' expectations. 'We started the fiscal year with record Q1 large deal and MSSP momentum alongside sustained 97% gross retention and consistently strong net retention as the market consolidates on Falcon as its cybersecurity platform of choice for the agentic AI era,' said George Kurtz, Founder and CEO. CrowdStrike delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is down 2.3% since reporting and currently trades at $477.35. Is now the time to buy CrowdStrike? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. After successfully selling all four of his previous cybersecurity companies, Jay Chaudhry's fifth venture, Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) offers software-as-a-service that helps companies securely connect to applications and networks in the cloud. Zscaler reported revenues of $678 million, up 22.6% year on year, outperforming analysts' expectations by 1.6%. The business had a very strong quarter with full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts' expectations and an impressive beat of analysts' annual recurring revenue estimates. Zscaler delivered the highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 15.5% since reporting. It currently trades at $289.80. Is now the time to buy Zscaler? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. With roots in the Israeli cyber intelligence community, SentinelOne (NYSE:S) provides software to help organizations efficiently detect, prevent, and investigate cyber attacks. SentinelOne reported revenues of $229 million, up 22.9% year on year, in line with analysts' expectations. It was a mixed quarter as it posted an impressive beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates but a miss of analysts' billings estimates. As expected, the stock is down 12.2% since the results and currently trades at $17.27. Read our full analysis of SentinelOne's results here. Founded in 2005 by cybersecurity engineer Nir Zuk, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) makes hardware and software cybersecurity products that protect companies from cyberattacks, breaches, and malware threats. Palo Alto Networks reported revenues of $2.29 billion, up 15.3% year on year. This print surpassed analysts' expectations by 0.5%. More broadly, it was a satisfactory quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts' EBITDA estimates but full-year revenue guidance meeting analysts' expectations. The stock is down 3.6% since reporting and currently trades at $187.66. Read our full, actionable report on Palo Alto Networks here, it's free. Founded during the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009, Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) is a cloud-based software-as-a-service platform that helps companies manage identity for their employees and customers. Okta reported revenues of $688 million, up 11.5% year on year. This result topped analysts' expectations by 1.2%. Aside from that, it was a satisfactory quarter as it also recorded EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts' expectations but a miss of analysts' billings estimates. The stock is down 27.1% since reporting and currently trades at $91.60. Read our full, actionable report on Okta here, it's free. Thanks to the Fed's rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, inflation has been on a steady path downward, easing back toward that 2% sweet spot. Fortunately (miraculously to some), all this tightening didn't send the economy tumbling into a recession, so here we are, cautiously celebrating a soft landing. The cherry on top? Recent rate cuts (half a point in September 2024, a quarter in November) have propped up markets, especially after Trump's November win lit a fire under major indices and sent them to all-time highs. However, there's still plenty to ponder — tariffs, corporate tax cuts, and what 2025 might hold for the economy. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 6 Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here. 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Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD): I Sold Some For My Trust, Says Jim Cramer
We recently published . CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world. Its shares have gained 46% year-to-date and have successfully recovered their 32% in losses between mid-February and March. However, while the stock is up since its March bottom, it fell by close to 6% in June after CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD)'s midpoint quarterly revenue guidance of $1.145 billion fell short of analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. In his previous remarks about the company, Cramer has continued to remain bullish about the cybersecurity industry due to several factors, such as state-backed cyber criminals. Here are his recent thoughts about CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in the aftermath of a Piper Sandler downgrade: 'I myself have sold some Crowdstrike for my charitable trust cause I said, alright, this is one of the greatest runs we've ever had. And I'm being, you know I don't like the fact that I'm being greedy. And I don't mean, George Kurtz watched the show, and I'm sorry George Kurtz, I just don't want to be part of that.' Security personnel at their consoles, monitoring a global network of threats in real-time. Previously, Cramer commented on CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in the context of strength in the cybersecurity market: 'First positive area is cybersecurity. The dangers have never been greater, and the group's winners are bountiful because there's just so much business, because there are so many cyber criminals, and some of them are state-sponsored. We're doing something for the club that we've never done. We actually own two of them for the trust, two… We own CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks. It's rare for us to have two stocks in the same relatively small sector, but the companies are doing so well that I kind of wish we even owned the third… Still, Palo Alto and CrowdStrike are winning huge deals. And while their stocks have been volatile at reporting time, their long-term direction is clear: It's higher.' While we acknowledge the potential of CRWD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Geek Wire
02-07-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike moves its ‘strategic technology hub' into new Redmond space
(Image via CrowdStrike) CrowdStrike moved into new office space in Redmond, Wash., the cybersecurity software company confirmed on Wednesday. The company is subleasing 34,873 square feet at Studio 7500, a single tenant office building at 7500 166th Ave. NE., according to figures in Broderick Group's Eastside Office Market Report for the second quarter. 'Washington state is an important part of CrowdStrike's business and our office there serves as a strategic technology hub supporting Engineering Operations and Sales & Customer Support, complementing other major development centers across the company's global footprint,' a spokesperson for Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike told GeekWire. The company, which employs roughly 10,000 people globally, does not break out headcount by region. The spokesperson said employees will use the new Redmond office as needed, in support of a 'remote friendly environment.' CrowdStrike previously occupied space in Kirkland, Wash. The Studio 7500 space was previously occupied by Volkswagen, according to Broderick Group. CrowdStrike announced plans in May to lay off 500 employees. Founder and CEO George Kurtz wrote at the time that the company was evolving how it operates as AI was 'reshaping every industry.' Last year, a flawed update to CrowdStrike's Falcon cybersecurity platform affected 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices, impacting airlines and other enterprise businesses in an extraordinary global IT outage. Engineering outposts
