CrowdStrike (CRWD.US) Q3 performance validates platform strength, Wall Street cheers: AI-driven growth story is just beginning.

Network security giant CrowdStrike (CRWD.US) announced its performance and future guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 on Wednesday, receiving positive reviews from Wall Street and being seen by analysts as a "significant validation moment" for the company. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a report to clients, "CrowdStrike's third quarter performance for fiscal year 2026 shows revenue and earnings per share slightly exceeding market expectations, but the key highlight is the accelerated growth in annual recurring revenue - driven by strong demand for its cloud services, identity authentication, and security information and event management (SIEM) product solutions, which are continuously gaining market recognition alongside the Charlotte AI platform." He further noted, "CrowdStrike remains the gold standard in the cybersecurity field, the company's platform integration strategy is increasingly effective, and it is in the early stages of seizing market opportunities in the AI revolution, with the growth story just beginning." Ives rated the stock as "outperform" with a target price of $600. Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshall stated that performance further highlights the company's platform advantage - with 49%, 34%, and 24% of subscription customers using 6, 7, and 8 feature modules respectively. However, she added, "Due to the lack of a performance outlook adjustment, there may be limited upside to the stock price during this quarter." Marshall rated the stock as "hold" with a target price of $515. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analyst Joseph Gallo rated the stock as "buy" with a target price of $600. He mentioned that despite continued unfavorable factors related to some partners, annual recurring revenue achieved a 22.5% year-on-year growth, which he found satisfactory. Gallo stated in the report, "Overall, the performance this quarter is impressive, with growth in endpoint security and SIEM/identity/cloud business accelerating, increasing market confidence in maintaining annual recurring revenue growth rate of 23% or more for fiscal year 2027." Investment firms Susquehanna and BMO also raised CrowdStrike's target stock price, from $520 and $500 to $600 and $555, respectively.