Investing.com -- Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) on Tuesday reported a better than expected quarterly earnings and raised annual outlook on the back of strong demand for its cybersecurity products at a time when there are rising online threats fueled by the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
However, the company's shares fell 6% in premarket trading Wednesday after its fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to impress investors.
For the third quarter, CrowdStirke's revenue rose about 29% to $1.01 billion, beating estimates of $982 million.
It reported a profit per share of 93 cents, above expectations of 81 cents.
“CrowdStrike surpassed $4 billion in ending ARR in the quarter - the fastest and only pure play cybersecurity software company to reach this reported milestone - as our single platform approach and trailblazing innovation continue to resonate at-scale,” said CEO George Kurtz.
For Q4, the company expects Q4 revenue to be between $1.03 billion and $1.04 billion, compared to consensus estimates of $1.03 billion.
It now forecasts its annual adjusted profit per share to be between $3.74 and $3.76, up from its previous range of $3.61 to $3.65.
"While the outage impact is still in play, Flex and financial services (CFS) are driving greater module adoption, larger deal sizes, and longer duration contracts," Oppenheimer analysts said in a post-earnings note.
"This, combined with customers opting for more modules vs. extended deal terms as part of the Customer Commitment Package (CPP), suggests strong customer commitment and a likely recovery in 2HFY26."
"We expect the stock to remain range-bound until investors gain greater clarity around ARR comments, which changed from ARR to NNARR re-acceleration in 2HFY26."
RBC Capital Markets voiced similar comments, noting that CRWD management has executed well following the July outage. The incident led to near-term challenges but "should not impact customer lifetime value (LTV)," analysts noted.
"The outage weighed on guidance, which we view as prudently conservative, but commentary around a 2H/26 net-new ARR re-acceleration shows confidence in the short duration of expected headwinds," they added.
Pratyush Thakur contributed to this report.