Investing.com - Shares in CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) sank in premarket U.S. trading on Wednesday after the cybersecurity group current-quarter guidance that was short of Wall Street estimates.
Companies, worried by the emerging threat of hacking and fraud, have been spending more on their digital defenses, bolstering businesses like CrowdStrike that offer artificial intelligence-enhanced cybersecurity products. AT&T (NYSE:T), Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:LYV)'s Ticketmaster division and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) were all hit by online hacking attempts last year.
Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike offers cloud-based security solutions to its clients, including its Falcon tool that seeks to identify unusual behavior on computer systems and protect against vulnerabilities. The program was at the center of a global tech outage in July that hit everything from airlines to media firms.
The stock has largely recovered since declining in the wake of the incident, rising by 12.3% so far this year and outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 index.
In the fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted per-share earnings of $1.03 on revenue of $682 million, above estimates of $0.86 and $668.9 million, respectively. Annual recurring revenue – a closely-monitored gauge of the performance of its subscription businesses – rose 23% from a year earlier.
For the current quarter, adjusted operating income is seen at $173.1 million to $180 million, versus Bloomberg consensus estimates of $219.7 million. Revenue is tipped to be in a range of $1.10 billion to $1.11 billion, compared with estimates for $1.11 billion.
Speaking with analysts in a post-earnings call, CFO Burt Podbere flagged that the company expects to incur first-quarter cash impacts of approximately $73 million "for outage-related costs, including incremental sales compensation," as well as $43 million due to "flexible payment terms provided under customer commitment packages for deals" closed in the second half of its 2025 fiscal year.
Full-year adjusted diluted net income per share was also forecast to be between $3.33 to $3.45, while revenue is anticipated to come in at $4.74 billion to $4.81 billion.
"Results were strong, the revenue guide was in line as a tax methodology change hurt [earnings per share] guidance," analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note to clients.
(Yasin Ebrahim contributed reporting.)