CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) Shares Down 1.6% – Here’s Why

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD)’s share price dropped 1.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $451.76 and last traded at $460.70. Approximately 3,744,845 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 37% from the average daily volume of 2,738,371 shares. The stock had previously closed at $468.02.

Key Headlines Impacting CrowdStrike

Here are the key news stories impacting CrowdStrike this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed its Buy rating and set a $640 price target, signaling significant upside from current levels and supporting the long-term bull case. BTIG reaffirms buy
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent bulls such as Daniel Ives continue to list CrowdStrike among top AI/security plays for 2026, reinforcing investor interest in CRWD as an AI-security beneficiary. Ives names CRWD a top AI stock
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat and other bulls argue the recent pullback is technical/profit-taking and reiterate conviction in CrowdStrike’s growth, reinforcing the view that fundamentals remain intact. MarketBeat bullish piece
• Positive Sentiment: CrowdStrike announced it will acquire Seraphic Security (terms undisclosed), expanding its identity/security capabilities — a strategic tuck-in that can support revenue and product positioning in identity security. CrowdStrike to acquire Seraphic Security
• Neutral Sentiment: A federal judge dismissed the shareholder lawsuit tied to the July 2024 outage, removing a legal overhang — a legal win that would normally be positive but failed to spark a sustained rally. Reuters: lawsuit dismissed
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts are actively discussing CrowdStrike’s push into identity security and AI-related product positioning; coverage remains heavy and mixed, which increases volatility around newsflow. TipRanks: analysts trending on identity push
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc downgraded CrowdStrike to Sector Weight, citing valuation concerns and a more measured near-term security budget backdrop — a catalyst that can pressure the stock given its premium multiple. KeyBanc downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: CEO George Kurtz publicly warned about over-reliance on AI agents, calling AI a “drunken intern” — remarks that highlight execution/operational risks and may stoke investor caution around AI-driven revenue assumptions. CEO calls AI a ‘drunken intern’
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage noted the stock “sank” in morning trade despite the court win, suggesting traders are reacting more to near-term concerns (valuations, analyst downgrades, CEO comments) than to the legal outcome. TipRanks on stock reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts and articles continue to flag valuation as a constraint despite reaccelerating growth, which keeps upside conditional on execution and multiple expansion. Seeking Alpha: valuation concerns

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRWD has been the subject of several analyst reports. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $510.00 price objective (up previously from $410.00) on shares of CrowdStrike in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. DZ Bank downgraded shares of CrowdStrike from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on CrowdStrike from $580.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on CrowdStrike from $430.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Thirty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $555.42.

CrowdStrike Trading Down 1.6%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $499.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $481.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -365.63, a P/E/G ratio of 112.32 and a beta of 1.03.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.02. CrowdStrike had a negative return on equity of 2.12% and a negative net margin of 6.88%.The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. CrowdStrike has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.700-3.720 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.090-1.110 EPS. Equities analysts expect that CrowdStrike will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sameer K. Gandhi sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.20, for a total value of $2,751,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 765,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $421,153,891.20. This represents a 0.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Michael Sentonas sold 11,461 shares of CrowdStrike stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $479.78, for a total transaction of $5,498,758.58. Following the sale, the president directly owned 342,655 shares in the company, valued at $164,399,015.90. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 71,048 shares of company stock valued at $35,767,887. Corporate insiders own 3.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in CrowdStrike by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,670,000 after purchasing an additional 2,417 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 3.6% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 4,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,697,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of CrowdStrike by 24.0% during the second quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 1,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. increased its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 51.7% in the second quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the period. Finally, Little House Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 28.4% in the second quarter. Little House Capital LLC now owns 5,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,626,000 after buying an additional 1,141 shares during the period. 71.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CrowdStrike Company Profile

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD) is a cybersecurity company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The firm was co-founded by George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch and became a publicly traded company following its initial public offering in 2019. CrowdStrike positions itself as a provider of cloud-native security solutions designed to protect endpoints, cloud workloads, identities and data against sophisticated cyber threats.

The company’s core offering is the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, a modular, cloud-delivered security architecture that combines endpoint protection (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), threat intelligence, and device control through lightweight agents and centralized telemetry.