CrowdStrike (CRWD) Downgraded to Sector Weight Amid Cautious 2026 Security Budget Outlook
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Jan 12 2026
0mins
Source: seekingalpha
- Rating Downgrade: KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded CrowdStrike to Sector Weight, primarily due to a cautious outlook on the 2026 security budget, resulting in a 2.1% drop in premarket trading.
- Valuation Pressure: Analyst Eric Heath highlighted that CrowdStrike's current premium valuation, combined with uncertain AI contributions to security spending, creates significant valuation pressure, especially after strong comparisons in FY26.
- Market Positioning: Despite the downgrade, Heath views CrowdStrike as the best-positioned consolidator of security spending, strategically capable of providing an agentic SOC and poised to benefit from securing AI workloads.
- Competitive Analysis: In addition to CrowdStrike, Heath mentioned Snowflake, Okta, Dynatrace, and Datadog as his favorite picks in the security, data, and AI software sectors, indicating strong market interest and potential growth opportunities for these companies.
Analyst Views on CRWD
Wall Street analysts forecast CRWD stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for CRWD is 562.25 USD with a low forecast of 353.00 USD and a high forecast of 640.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
34 Analyst Rating
23 Buy
11 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 468.330
Low
353.00
Averages
562.25
High
640.00
Current: 468.330
Low
353.00
Averages
562.25
High
640.00
About CRWD
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. is a global cybersecurity company that provides cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity and data. Its Falcon platform is designed for cybersecurity consolidation, purpose-built to stop breaches. The platforms collect and integrate data from across the enterprise, including endpoints, cloud workloads, identities, and third-party sources. It offers 29 cloud modules on its Falcon platform via a software as a service (SaaS) subscription-based model that spans multiple large markets, including corporate endpoint and cloud workload security, managed security services, security and vulnerability management, information technology (IT) operations management, identity protection, next-generation security information and event management (SIEM) and log management, threat intelligence services, data protection, SaaS security posture management, automation and response (SOAR) and artificial intelligence powered workflow automation, and others.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
