** Shares of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike CRWD.O down ~1.7% at $505.46 in premarket trading

** Piper Sandler downgrades stock to "neutral" from "overweight"

** Brokerage cites slowing in core areas like endpoint, federal uncertainty, recent layoffs, investigations into Carahsoft contracts as asymmetric risk for co

** "While our overall disposition towards the company and its longer-term opportunity as a security / IT consolidator remains favorable, we do not believe investors should be adding shares at this time as upside could be limited over the short-to-medium term" - Piper Sandler

** Avg rating of 54 analysts is "hold"; median PT $495 - data compiled by LSEG

** As of last close, CRWD stock is up ~50% YTD

(Reporting by Akriti Shah in Bengaluru)

((akriti.shah@thomsonreuters.com))