CrowdStrike shares jumped more than 11% in extended trading Wednesday after the cybersecurity company posted its strongest quarter on record and raised its full-year forecast, as enterprises keep spending to defend against artificial-intelligence-enabled attacks. The results offered a bright counterpoint on a week when investors have been parsing whether AI infrastructure spending elsewhere in the market is starting to outrun demand.
The Austin-based firm reported adjusted earnings of 31 cents a share on revenue of $1.47 billion for its fiscal second quarter, topping Wall Street's estimates of 29 cents a share and $1.44 billion. Revenue grew 26% from $1.17 billion a year earlier. Annual recurring revenue rose 25% to $5.84 billion as of July 31, while net new ARR, a closely watched measure of new business booked in the quarter, jumped 51% to $333 million, beating the company's own guidance.
Guidance Raised Across the Board
Management lifted its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $5.99 billion to $6.01 billion, above the $5.93 billion analysts had penciled in, and raised adjusted earnings guidance to $1.25 to $1.26 a share. For the current quarter, CrowdStrike guided to revenue of $1.52 billion to $1.53 billion. The company also said it added 935 Flex subscription accounts during the quarter, which it said made up its ten largest deals by value, a sign that customers are consolidating security spending onto CrowdStrike's platform rather than splitting budgets across point tools.
Chief Executive George Kurtz described the results in stark terms on the earnings release accompanying the report.
The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption needs security, and that's CrowdStrike.
George Kurtz, Chief Executive Officer, CrowdStrike, via CNBC
Kurtz called it simply "the best quarter in CrowdStrike's history," a claim the numbers largely back up: the company's growth rate accelerated for a second straight quarter after a stretch last year in which rivals questioned whether the fallout from its 2024 software outage would erode its market position. Instead, Wednesday's report showed customers renewing and expanding contracts at a faster clip than Wall Street had modeled.
The stock had already climbed sharply for the year heading into the print, making Wednesday's aftermarket pop notable for a company whose valuation already priced in substantial growth. The results also mark a further step back from the summer of 2024, when a botched software update triggered a global outage that grounded flights and knocked out hospital and bank systems, an episode that once threatened to dent customer trust in the platform.
