CrowdStrike shares plummet 19% as sales outlook misses Wall Street's forecasts

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CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) shares plunged as much as 19% in after-hours trading Tuesday as the threat-detection technology company gave a fourth-quarter sales forecast that fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

CrowdStrike (CRWD) said that it expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be in a range of $619.1M to $628.2M, while analysts had earlier forecast the company's sales to reach $634.2M. While its revenue outlook fell short of analysts' estimates, it also forecast earnings, excluding one-time items, of $0.42 to $0.45 a share, which surpassed estimates of $0.34 a share.

For its third quarter, CrowdStrike (CRWD) reported a profit, excluding one-time items, of $0.40 a share on revenue of $580.9M, compared to analysts' estimates for a profit of $0.32 a share on $575M in sales. Highlights for the quarter include the addition of 1,460 new subscription customers, to bring it to a total of 21,146 subscription customers.

Wall Street analysts have a consensus strong buy rating on CrowdStrike's (CRWD) stock, while Seeking Alpha authors give the shares a buy rating. Meanwhile, Seeking Alpha's Quant system, which historically outperforms the stock market, gives CrowdStrike (CRWD) a more-sedate rating of hold.