Merit Financial Group LLC Boosts Holdings in CrowdStrike $CRWD

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) by 58.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,938 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,548 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in CrowdStrike were worth $3,534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Patron Partners LLC increased its holdings in CrowdStrike by 2.1% during the second quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 1,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC raised its position in shares of CrowdStrike by 0.9% in the first quarter. Real Talk Capital LLC now owns 2,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $963,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 145 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ramirez Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. now owns 450 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.16% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $505.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Wedbush restated a “buy” rating on shares of CrowdStrike in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $475.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $430.00 to $435.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $491.81.

CrowdStrike Price Performance

CRWD stock opened at $484.62 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $447.07 and a 200-day moving average of $441.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. CrowdStrike has a 12 month low of $286.78 and a 12 month high of $517.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -407.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 116.54 and a beta of 1.19.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.10. CrowdStrike had a negative net margin of 6.84% and a negative return on equity of 1.53%. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.04 earnings per share. CrowdStrike’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. CrowdStrike has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.600-3.72 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 0.930-0.95 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CrowdStrike will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at CrowdStrike

In other CrowdStrike news, CFO Burt W. Podbere sold 10,706 shares of CrowdStrike stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $495.67, for a total transaction of $5,306,643.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 220,424 shares in the company, valued at $109,257,564.08. The trade was a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Michael Sentonas sold 20,000 shares of CrowdStrike stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total transaction of $10,000,000.00. Following the sale, the president owned 379,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $189,558,000. The trade was a 5.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 132,816 shares of company stock valued at $62,606,356 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.32% of the company’s stock.

About CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions in the United States and internationally. Its unified platform offers cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The company offers corporate endpoint and cloud workload security, managed security, security and vulnerability management, IT operations management, identity protection, SIEM and log management, threat intelligence, data protection, security orchestration, automation and response and AI powered workflow automation, and securing generative AI workload services.