We recently published a list of 11 Trending AI Stocks On Latest News and Analyst Ratings. Since Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) ranks 7th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Investors remain cautious following a major global selloff that shook the markets last week on recession fears. Analyst warnings around sky-high CapEx of tech companies and lack of visibility over returns are also expected to keep tech valuations in check in the coming weeks.
Last month, Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, while talking to CNBC, highlighted a report from Goldman Sachs that said returns of AI investments might fail to meet investors’ expectations.
“The amount of capital investment in this sector, which is billions of dollars now, is so large that it’s almost unimaginable that we are going to get a rate of return over the next few years that justifies the amount of investment,” McNamee said.
Talking to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Asset Management’s Aisa Ogoshi said that there is some “adjustment” coming for tech stocks as she expects the AI-centric rally to diversify to other sectors.
“The key is to keep an eye on the earnings trends. It’s easy to panic in these times but really, just sit down and look at the numbers and reassess our positioning.”
Asked whether she plans to reduce exposure to AI stocks in the coming days, the analyst said she’d be more “selective” when it comes to AI plays and will increase the quality of stocks in the portfolio.
For this article, we chose 11 trending AI stocks based on the latest news, earnings and analyst ratings. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 76
BofA Securities recently highlighted several tech stocks that are presenting attractive entry points amid their latest declines. Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) was among these stocks.
Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) shares have been battered after a system update caused the massive global tech outage in July.
However, analysts believe the fundamental story of Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) remains unchanged, despite short-term damages. Wedbush Securities estimates that less than 5% of CrowdStrike’s customers might switch providers, potentially impacting revenue by $150 million out of the projected $3 billion in sales for fiscal year 2024. This would lower the company’s forward revenue growth from 30.6% to 25.6%, but even at this adjusted rate, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) would remain well above the IT sector median.
Oppenheimer recently gave an Outperform rating to Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) shares based on technical analysis. CRWD’s generative AI security platform Charlotte AI is seeing a lot of traction. In the June quarter, the platform saw a whopping 90% POV close rate. During the quarter, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) saw a dramatic surge in deals involving cloud, identity, or Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, more than doubling year-over-year. Management emphasized that customers are reaping substantial cost savings by adopting more modules, a development that bodes very well for Crowdstrike Holdings Inc’s (NASDAQ:CRWD) top-line growth. The strategic expansion of its modules has also tapped into the burgeoning AI-related demand, driving higher adoption rates. The stock’s forward P/E is 60, much higher than the industry average of 24, but 76% lower than the company’s five-year average. Wall Street expects revenue of Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) to grow 26% next year and earnings by 23%.
The company has $3.7 billion of cash versus $793 million of debt and its FCF margins exceed the IT median by a hefty 250%.
TimesSquare Capital U.S. Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“The high demand for cybersecurity systems is unlikely to abate, which benefited CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD). The company’s expansion beyond endpoint security to offering security on all cloud workloads, along with its growing product suite in areas such as identity and security information & event management, is driving strong demand for its platform among customers amidst a very active cyberthreat environment. That lifted its shares by 25% this quarter, and we trimmed our position.”
Overall, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) ranks 7th on Insider Monkey’s list titled 11 Trending AI Stocks On Latest News and Analyst Ratings. While we acknowledge the potential of Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CRWD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.