CrowdStrike Key Metric Boosted By 'Falcon Flex' Financing Growth

CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that edged by consensus estimates while the cybersecurity firm’s fiscal 2027 guidance for CrowdStrike stock came in slightly above views.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based cybersecurity firm reported January-ended quarterly earnings after the market close on Tuesday. CrowdStrike earnings climbed 38% to $1.12 per share on an adjusted basis. Revenue, including acquisitions, rose 23% to $1.31 billion.

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Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted earnings of $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.297 billion.

“The company saw broad-based strength, with the core endpoint business accelerating for the second quarter in a row due to AI-driven demand,” said Susquehanna analyst Shyam Patil in a report. “Management also called out strong traction with next-gen identity and next-gen SIEM, both of which saw record net new ARR during the quarter.”

Meanwhile, several Wall Street brokerages lowered their price targets on CrowdStrike stock on Wednesday.

CrowdStrike Stock: ARR Key Metric

With CrowdStrike, Wall Street analysts focus on annual recurring revenue, or ARR. It’s a key financial metric tied to subscription services growth. “Net new” ARR is the most recent quarter’s annual recurring revenue added from new customers and existing customer expansions.

In Q4, total ARR increased 24% to $5.25 billion. Analysts had predicted total ARR of $5.224 billion. Net new ARR rose 47% to $331 million vs. estimates of $302 million.

For fiscal 2027, which starts with the current quarter ending in April, CrowdStrike said it expects adjusted EPS of $4.84 at the midpoint of guidance vs. estimates of $4.80.

Also, CrowdStrike predicted revenue in a range of $5.867 billion to $5.927 billion vs. estimates for $5.861 billion.

The cybersecurity firm forecast 24% total ARR growth in fiscal 2027 to about $6.491 billion, slightly above estimates of 23% growth. The ARR guidance includes two recent acquisitions, SGNL and Seraphic.

On the stock market today, CrowdStrike stock rose 0.6% to near 394 in early trading. Heading into the CrowdStrike earnings report, shares were down 16% in 2026.

CrowdStrike competes with Palo Alto Networks (PANW), SentinelOne (S), Microsoft (MSFT) and others in the “endpoint” market. Endpoint security tools detect malware on laptops, mobile phones and other devices that access corporate networks.

Falcon Flex Financing Boost

“CrowdStrike has proven the ability to innovate additional modules adjacent to the endpoint business that continue to pick up steam with the Falcon Flex purchasing vehicle, and this should drive net retention rate higher,” said Raymond James analyst Adam Tindle in a report.

Falcon Flex provides flexible licensing agreements that give customers “credits” to use on any CrowdStrike tool. The company also provides in-house financing to customers.

At JPMorgan, analyst Brian Essex holds a similar view on Falcon Flex momentum.

“Ending Flex ARR reached $1.69 billion, growing more than 120 year-over-year with over 1,600 customers now on Flex,” Essex said in a report.

He added: “The company added 350-plus Flex customers in Q4 alone, nearly four per day, with the average Flex customer ARR exceeding $1 million and module adoption approaching 10 modules per customer.”

Technical Ratings

CrowdStrike is building a broad, threat-detection cybersecurity platform called XDR, which stands for extended detection and response. It monitors endpoints as well as web/email gateways, web application firewalls and cloud business workloads.

CrowdStrike stock holds a Composite Rating of 52 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. IBD’s Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.

CrowdStrike stock holds an Accumulation/Distribution Rating of D-minus. That rating analyzes price and volume changes in a stock over the past 13 weeks of trading. A+ signifies heavy institutional buying; E means heavy selling. Think of a C grade as neutral.

If you’re new to IBD, consider taking a look at its trading system, especially for bull and bear markets, the basics of technical analysis and recognizing base patterns. IBD offers a broad range of growth stock lists.

Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.

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