CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) reports third-quarter earnings Tuesday after the close, and it's shaping up to be an important read-through for the cybersecurity sector. The company has been on a roll lately, and investors want to know if the momentum can continue—especially with AI taking center stage in the cybersecurity conversation.

What Wall Street Expects

Analysts are looking for Q3 revenue of $1.21 billion and earnings per share of 94 cents. That would represent solid growth from last year's third quarter, when the company posted $1.01 billion in revenue and 93 cents per share in earnings.

CrowdStrike's own guidance calls for revenue between $1.208 billion and $1.218 billion, with EPS in the range of 93 to 95 cents per share. So the Street is essentially at the midpoint of what management laid out.

Here's what makes this interesting: CrowdStrike has beaten revenue estimates in eight of the last 10 quarters, including the most recent one. The EPS beat streak is even more impressive—nine out of the last 10 quarters. This is a company that tends to deliver.

The Analyst View

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is expecting a "solid quarter" from CrowdStrike and maintains an Outperform rating with a $600 price target. He's bullish on the company's consolidation strategy and sees significant runway in the AI opportunity.

Ives keeps CrowdStrike on both his AAI 30 List and Wedbush's Best Ideas List, arguing that the company is "in the early stages of capitalizing on AI Revolution market opportunity."

The analyst is particularly interested in CrowdStrike's agentic security strategy, which he says is "in the early innings of playing out" following the announcement of several new AI solutions. His take: "We expect to see an accelerating upward trend but will torque everything pointing to an elevated benefit from AI cyber spending with CRWD in a strong position to continue capitalizing on the AI cybersecurity trend."

Not everyone is rushing in before the print, though. Freedom Capital Markets Chief Market Strategist Jay Woods acknowledges that CrowdStrike "has been the model for cybersecurity stocks for years now" and has historically grown stronger after dealing with crises. But he also points out that the stock is at a "technical crossroads" heading into earnings.

Woods sees bearish momentum in recent price action and suggests investors should watch for weakness if guidance disappoints. "It is not the ideal set-up to trade into earnings, but should provide much better risk/reward opportunities after they report," he noted in a weekly newsletter.

Several other major firms have recently raised their price targets on the stock:

• JPMorgan: Maintained Overweight rating, raised price target from $500 to $580
• KeyBanc: Maintained Overweight rating, raised price target from $510 to $570
• DA Davidson: Maintained Buy rating, raised price target from $515 to $580
• Oppenheimer: Maintained Outperform rating, raised price target from $560 to $580

What to Watch For

The big story heading into this quarter is CrowdStrike's October announcement of a partnership with Nvidia to develop cybersecurity AI agents. That news sent shares higher, and investors will be listening closely for any additional details about how the collaboration will unfold and what it means for revenue down the line.

In the second quarter, CrowdStrike posted 21% year-over-year revenue growth, with subscription revenue climbing 21% to $1.10 billion. Subscription revenue is a key metric here, and analysts will be watching for continued strength in that area while keeping an eye on AI-related developments.

"As AI transforms the enterprise, CrowdStrike enables organizations to confidently embrace their AI future from development to deployment, from cloud to endpoint, and from human to agent," CEO George Kurtz said after the Q2 results.

The company raised its full-year revenue and earnings guidance after the second quarter. If CrowdStrike delivers another strong quarter and bumps guidance higher again, that could be the catalyst that sends shares to new highs.

CRWD Price Action: CrowdStrike stock is down 1.1% to $503.83 on Monday, versus a 52-week trading range of $298.14 to $566.90. Shares are up 45.0% year-to-date in 2025.