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Updated: 28-Aug-25 10:44 ET
CrowdStrike beats Q2 expectations with record Net New ARR, but cautious Q3 outlook weighs (CRWD)
CrowdStrike (CRWD) delivered a solid performance in 2Q26, surpassing analyst expectations for both EPS and revenue while posting a record net new annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $221 mln -- a notable reacceleration that exceeded the company's own projections. This marked a rebound from the softer $194 mln in net new ARR reported in Q1, which had dipped from the $224 mln achieved in 4Q25 amid lingering effects from the prior year's Falcon sensor disruption. 

Complementing these results, the company also unveiled a $290 mln acquisition of Onum Technology Inc., a Madrid-based innovator in real-time telemetry pipeline management, signaling strategic intent to bolster its data ingestion and analysis capabilities within the Falcon platform.
  • The quarter's momentum, however, gave way to tempered optimism with mixed guidance for 3Q26, which triggered an initial sell-off in after-hours trading. While the EPS outlook of $0.93 to $0.95 beat consensus estimates, the revenue guidance of $1.208-$1.218 bln was just shy of expectations, underscoring a cautious stance on near-term top-line expansion. For FY26, CRWD reaffirmed in-line revenue expectations of $4.750-$4.806 bln, aligning with prior projections despite heightened scrutiny.
  • This conservative tone is largely attributable to the persistent drag from Customer Commitment Packages (CCPs), introduced in the wake of the July 2024 Falcon sensor outage to retain clients through incentives like extended terms and credits; management had previously quantified a $10-$15 mln quarterly revenue headwind from these measures through the balance of FY26, with abatement anticipated in 1Q27 as the programs wind down and customer confidence stabilizes.
  • A pivotal bright spot in the results remains net new ARR, the quintessential demand signal for SaaS-driven cybersecurity firms like CRWD, which surged 14% sequentially to $221 mln and propelled ending ARR to $4.66 bln, up 20% yr/yr. Management's forward-looking commentary is particularly encouraging, projecting approximately 40% yr/yr net new ARR growth in 2H26, which bodes well for sustained reacceleration as macro headwinds ease and enterprise spending rebounds.
  • This trajectory is underpinned by several tailwinds: robust adoption of the Falcon Flex consumption-based licensing model, which has attracted over 1,000 customers and facilitated larger, multi-module deals; accelerating growth in high-margin segments like cloud security, next-gen identity protection, and next-gen SIEM; and the Falcon platform's AI-native enhancements, including Charlotte AI for threat triage and integrations with NVIDIA and OpenAI.
  • Enterprises' ongoing consolidation of disparate IT security tools onto unified platforms continues to favor CRWD's Falcon ecosystem, as organizations seek to streamline operations, reduce complexity, and lower total cost of ownership. This trend is evidenced by deepening module adoption rates, with 48% of customers deploying six or more modules and 33% utilizing seven or more as of July 31, 2025 -- metrics that highlight the platform's stickiness and cross-sell efficacy.
  • The $290 mln acquisition of Onum represents a shrewd bolt-on to CRWD's portfolio, targeting the critical need for efficient, real-time data pipeline management in an age where telemetry volume from endpoints, cloud environments, and IoT devices is exploding. Onum's proprietary stateless in-memory architecture excels at ingesting and processing third-party data at scale with minimal latency and cost, enabling in-pipeline threat detection that accelerates incident response without overwhelming storage demands -- a pain point for traditional SIEM systems burdened by data ingestion fees.

While CRWD's Q3 revenue guidance introduces a note of caution amid the CCP-related headwinds, the record net new ARR and anticipated 40% growth in the back half signal resilient underlying demand and a return to pre-outage momentum. The impending fade of these impacts in 1Q27, coupled with strategic moves like the Onum acquisition, should catalyze a more robust revenue trajectory.

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