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Shares in CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. surged almost 24% in late trading today after the cybersecurity company reported beats in revenue, earnings and outlook and also announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire cloud data runtime security startup Flow Security Inc.

The stock rise moderated on Wednesday, but shares were still up 15% in early trading.

For its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter that ended Jan. 31, CrowdStrike reported adjusted earnings per share of 95 cents, up from 45 cents per share in the same quarter of last year, on revenue of $845.3 million, up 33% year-over-year. Both were higher than the 82 cents per share on revenue of $839.1 million expected by analysts.

CrowdStrike’s strong figures were driven by customer growth, with the company reporting 34% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue to $3.44 billion. The figure was up $281.9 million in the fourth quarter. CrowdStrike also saw its adjusted subscription gross margin climbing to 80%, up from 77% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.

Recent business highlights include CrowdStrike announcing an expanded strategic partnership with Dell Technologies to deliver Dell’s Managed Detection and Response services alongside the artificial intelligence-native CrowdStrike Falcon XDR platform in December.

More recently, CrowdStrike delivered its annual Global Threat Report, which warned of a surge in adversaries leveraging stolen identify credentials to exploit gaps in cloud environments and to maximize the steal, speed and impact of cyberattacks.

For its full fiscal year 2024, CrowdStrike reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.09, up from $1.54 in fiscal 2023, on revenue of $3.06 billion, up 36% year-over-year. The company generated net cash of $1,166 billion in fiscal 2024, up from $941.0 million a year prior and free cash flow of $938.2 million, up from $676.8 million.

“Highlights of the fiscal year included ending ARR growing 34%, four consecutive quarters of GAAP net income, 104% non-GAAP net income growth and free cash flow margin of 31%, exceeding our target for the year,” Chief Financial Officer Burt Podbere said in the company’s earning release. “Our achievements in fiscal 2024 represent another high-water mark for CrowdStrike and we remain relentlessly focused on profitably scaling the business to $10 billion ARR and beyond.”

For its fiscal 2025 first quarter, CrowdStrike expects to see adjusted earnings per share of 89 to 90 cents on revenue of $902.2 million to $905.8 million. Both were ahead of expected figures of 82 cents and $899.5 million. For the full year, adjusted earnings per share is forecast at $3.77 to $3.97 on revenue of $3.925 billion to $3.989 billion.

“Despite recent concerns around spending fatigue in the cybersecurity market brought on by cybersecurity behemoth Palo Alto Network’s recent FY24 guidance reduction, CrowdStrike’s Q4 performance does not demonstrate a broader impact to the cybersecurity market and appears to indicate PANW’s performance was an insulated event driven by the company’s recent platformization initiative,” Jordan Berger, an analyst at the research firm Third Bridge told SiliconANGLE in an email.

Alongside the earnings release, CrowdStrike also announced that it agreed to buy Israeli cloud security startup Flow Security for an undisclosed price.

Founded in 2021, Flow Security offers a platform for securing enterprise full data lifecycles and allows organizations to automatically discover, map, classify, manage and secure all their data in every state — at rest, in use and in motion. Upon completion of the deal, CrowdStrike plans to incorporate Flow Security’s DSPM capabilities into Falcon Cloud Security as part of the Falcon XDR platform, enabling customers to consolidate cloud point solutions and protect the entire cloud estate.

Coming into its acquisition, Flow Security had raised $10 million in venture capital, according to Tracxn. Investors included Amiti LLC, Global Founders Capital LLC and Amdocs Inc.

Photo: CrowdStrike