Why did CrowdStrike shares fall 9% Thursday? A 'tougher year' may lie ahead
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CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) shares fell more than 9% Thursday after Jefferies analyst Brent Thill cut his rating on the security-intelligence software company due to the chances of a "tougher year" ahead in 2023.
Thill took down his rating on CrowdStrike (CRWD) to hold from buy, and said the company is "turning into a grinder versus [a] high flyer". Among the reasons Thill cited for his downgrade were that CrowdStrike (CRWD) has fewer customers compared to the likes of FireEyem and that its "displacement opportunity" of legacy software vendors is "not as large as it once was."
"The low hanging fruit has already passed," Thill said. "We expect CrowdStrike takes [market] share, but it will be incrementally more difficult."
Activity in CrowdStrike's (CRWD) was higher than usual on Thursday, as 9.7M shares of the company's stock traded hands, or more than twice the daily average of 4.5M shares.
Wall Street analysts have a consensus strong buy rating on CrowdStrike's (CRWD) stock, while Seeking Alpha authors give the shares a slightly less-emphatic buy rating.
However, Seeking Alpha's Quant System, which historically outperforms the stock market, has a hold rating on CrowdStrike's shares.