New York, March 1, 2026, 15:06 ET — Market closed.
CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD.O) shares closed down 2.4% on Friday at $371.98, leaving the cybersecurity firm on the back foot heading into a key earnings week. 1
Investors now have a clear date on the calendar: CrowdStrike is set to release fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results after the U.S. market close on Tuesday, March 3, followed by a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. 2
The stock’s pullback on Friday snapped a two-day winning streak and came on higher-than-average volume, a MarketWatch report showed. CrowdStrike is also about 34% below its 52-week high of $566.90 hit on Nov. 12. 3
One pressure point late in the week was analyst work. Jefferies analyst Joseph Gallo lowered his price target on CrowdStrike to $500 from $600 while keeping a buy rating, saying he expects a beat versus consensus in fourth-quarter ARR — annual recurring revenue — growth, and arguing the firm is insulated from “AI risk.” 4
The broader market mood has not been friendly to high-multiple software. U.S. stocks ended February with sharp losses on Friday as worries around artificial intelligence, tariff uncertainty and geopolitics kept investors defensive, Reuters reported. “We were reminded there are still some cracks out there,” Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, said. 5
Cybersecurity peers have added their own volatility. Zscaler posted a wider quarterly net loss on higher spending and warned that customers are still cautious on large deals; CEO Jay Chaudhry said, “AI is driving demand for security,” even as budgets stay tight. 6
For CrowdStrike, the conversation this week is likely to turn on a few familiar dials: net new ARR, how sticky renewals look, and whether customers keep expanding onto more Falcon modules. ARR is a key subscription yardstick because it tracks contracted, recurring revenue over a year.
The AI angle is harder to pin down and it has whipsawed the group. Investors want to hear if new AI tools are mostly additive — creating fresh attack surface and driving security demand — or if they start to chip away at parts of the security workflow where vendors have earned rich valuations.
But there is an obvious downside path. If guidance leans cautious, if deal cycles stretch, or if discounting shows up in the outlook, the stock could take another leg down in a market that has been quick to punish any wobble in growth software.
Rates and macro data could also stir the tape. Friday’s U.S. employment report is expected to show payrolls rising by 60,000 jobs in February, according to a Reuters poll — a print that can quickly move bond yields and, by extension, rate-sensitive tech names. 7
The next hard catalyst is Tuesday’s report and conference call. Traders will be listening for what management says about demand, competition and how it expects AI to reshape security spending in the year ahead.
