BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani has maintained a Buy rating on CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD), setting a price target of $365. This valuation reflects a 17x multiple of Liani’s fiscal 2026 EV/Sales, a premium compared to other high-growth Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. This premium is justified by CrowdStrike’s strong competitive position in endpoint security, coupled with substantial growth opportunities in cloud security, log management, and identity protection.
Liani highlighted CrowdStrike’s robust growth profile and its potential to capture a significant share in emerging markets. He recently hosted an investor meeting with Burt Podbere, CrowdStrike’s CFO, where the company outlined its strategies for retaining customers following a recent global outage. These strategies involve offering incentives to affected customers, including discounts, bundled products, free offerings, flexible payment plans, and extended contract terms.
While acknowledging that the outage has led to delays in pipeline generation and increased deal scrutiny, Liani believes CrowdStrike’s efforts to address customer concerns will mitigate the near-term impact. However, he noted potential pressure on growth due to muted upsell values, longer deal cycles, and the need to recover outbound prospecting activities. Management is still assessing the full extent of the outage’s impact, with further information expected towards the end of the quarter.
Liani highlighted that while CrowdStrike’s discounting is temporary, aiming to address customer retention, the overall pricing environment in the cybersecurity sector is deteriorating. Both Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) and CrowdStrike, the two largest players in the field, now offer variable payment plans, suggesting a potential long-term pricing headwind as customers continue to push for discounts.
Despite the challenges posed by the outage and the evolving pricing landscape, Liani remains bullish on CrowdStrike’s long-term prospects, emphasizing its strong market position and growth potential.
