CrowdStrike (CRWD +8.09%) stock gained ground in Thursday's trading. The cybersecurity specialist's share price closed out the day's trading up 5.1% and had been up as much as 5.4% earlier in the daily session.
NASDAQ: CRWD
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CrowdStrike stock jumped today thanks to bullish coverage published by RBC Capital. The company's share price may also be getting a boost from recent-earnings results published by Delta Air Lines.
CrowdStrike is one of RBC's top-software bets for next year
RBC Capital published a report today that named CrowdStrike as one of its top-software investment ideas for 2025. The investment firm stated that it thinks the cybersecurity provider will be able to bounce back from challenges created by a massive service outage that shutdown global information technology (IT) systems in July.
RBC's analysts think that the short-term headwinds created by the IT outage remain overblown and that the company has a good chance of outperforming in 2025 and 2026 thanks to lowered expectations. The firm thinks that CrowdStrike has a viable path to reaching $10 billion in annual-recurring revenue and that tailwinds from generative artificial intelligence (AI) may be broadly underestimated.
Delta Air Line's third-quarter report may be a bullish indicator for CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike stock may also have gotten a boost form Delta Air Line's recent quarterly report and commentary. Delta has been one of the most high-profile impacted parties, with the airline facing widespread flight cancellations and other issues in the week following the IT meltdown.
With non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $1.50 on revenue of $14.59 billion in the third quarter, Delta's Q3 performance fell short of the average analyst-earnings target by $0.05 and the average-sales target by $700 million. The company also stated that the estimated adverse impact from the IT outage connected to CrowdStrike's software was roughly $380 million in the quarter, while Delta's sales and earnings performance came in below the market's expectations.
Delta's CEO said that attempting to recover damages from CrowdStrike was still on the table, but the negative impact from the July service outage appears to have come in below the levels that many had anticipated. While it's still too early to say that the company is on track for a complete recovery, CrowdStrike appears to be emerging from the setbacks of this year's systems meltdown.
