MW Why CrowdStrike's stock just got an upgrade ahead of earnings

By Hannah Pedone

An analyst sees minimal risk to the company's guidance and thinks shares have been overly punished by a broad selloff in the software sector

Piper Sandler analyst Rob Owens upgraded CrowdStrike shares to overweight over the weekend.

CrowdStrike Holdings shares now look attractive after an "overdone" selloff in the cybersecurity sector, according to a Piper Sandler analyst.

Piper's Rob Owens just upgraded CrowdStrike's stock (CRWD) to overweight, from neutral, ahead of the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report that's scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

CrowdStrike shares have been under pressure recently, especially after Anthropic announced a new cybersecurity feature, Claude Code Security, which rattled the sector last month. Software stocks in general have struggled, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV down 21% on the year.

But while artificial-intelligence fears have driven CrowdStrike shares 18% lower this year, Owens thinks the worries are misplaced. In fact, he wrote, CrowdStrike stands to benefit from AI, not get displaced by it.

AI could serve as "the next multibillion[-dollar] security opportunity as enterprises look to secure a new attack surface," he wrote.

Owens expects CrowdStrike to help lead a recovery for cybersecurity stocks, with the Amplify Cybersecurity ETF HACK down 7% so far this year. He said that he views CrowdStrike as having one of the "best-architected platforms" within the cybersecurity sector.

He added that the company's ability to "consistently expand" its platform offerings "without sacrificing product quality" makes the stock especially attractive.

So why upgrade the stock now? "It's hard to ever argue for a 'cheap' valuation" on CrowdStrike's stock, he acknowledged - but the recent selloff seems too extreme, and there are several potential positive catalysts ahead. These include the coming earnings report and the cybersecurity industry's big RSAC Conference later this month.

Since the company already offered some fiscal 2027 expectations alongside its last report, "we see minimal guide risk on the upcoming quarter, paving the way for what should be another strong year of execution for the company," Owens added.

See also: Why this investor says you can make good money off software stocks - if you trade them like telephone directories

Jefferies analyst Joseph Gallo, meanwhile, also took the view recently that CrowdStrike's stock is due to rebound.

He said in a Friday note that CrowdStrike remains "largely insulated" from revenue pressures that could arise from a greater push into the cybersecurity sector on behalf of companies creating large language models. Gallo believes that CrowdStrike's "broad platform" will continue to give the company a competitive advantage over LLMs.

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said in emailed comments that investors will be focused on management's guidance in the face of AI disruption. He believes the results will be "good news for the bulls," noting that shares of CrowdStrike have rallied after seven of the company's last 10 earnings reports.

CrowdStrike has also beaten the FactSet analyst consensus on earnings per share every quarter for the last five years, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Read more: 4 reasons cybersecurity stocks are primed for a breakout

-Hannah Pedone

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March 02, 2026 14:40 ET (19:40 GMT)

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