New York, February 17, 2026, 15:34 ET — Regular session
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc shares dropped roughly 4.4% to $410.61 Tuesday afternoon, after hitting a session low of $400.18. The cybersecurity company previously closed at $429.64, and earlier in the day the stock reached $428.72.
This shift is catching attention, with investors continuing to trim stakes in software stocks seen as vulnerable to rapid AI disruption. CrowdStrike has felt the pressure too, despite bullish voices insisting that security budgets remain more essential than other tech allocations.
Truist’s Junaid Siddiqui lowered his price target on CrowdStrike, now seeing the shares at $550 instead of $600, while sticking with his Buy call. “AI disruption is likely to dominate earnings season,” Siddiqui said. He described CrowdStrike as having “defensible moats for AI security” and sees the company positioned to “beat and raise”—delivering results ahead of expectations and issuing a higher guidance. (TipRanks)
Mizuho slashed its price target to $490 from $540 and maintained a Neutral stance, dialing back targets across enterprise software names after what it described as “multiple compression”—investors just aren’t willing to pay as much for revenue now. “Due to AI disruption fears, sentiment across software is nothing short of horrible at the moment,” analysts wrote. Still, their most recent quarterly checks turned out “solid overall.” (TipRanks)
Software names stayed under pressure, even as the rest of tech found its footing on Tuesday. The S&P 500 software index slipped roughly 1.6%, Reuters said. Alibaba, for its part, rolled out its Qwen 3.5 AI model on Monday. Strategist Tim Ghriskey at Ingalls & Snyder put it bluntly: “the market is looking very short-term.” (Reuters)
CrowdStrike highlighted fresh gains in its cloud security offerings in a press release Tuesday. Chief Technology Officer Elia Zaitsev described the cloud as “a primary battleground,” with attackers taking advantage of “fragmented security approaches” that leave gaps. The company had earlier announced that Frost & Sullivan tapped CrowdStrike as Company of the Year for cloud workload security. (CrowdStrike)
But not everyone is bearish. Wedbush, labeling CrowdStrike the “gold standard of cybersecurity,” stood by its $600 price target in a Tuesday note, according to Investopedia. The firm also pointed to Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler as possible winners tied to AI. (Investopedia)
The stock’s tumble underlines just how fast broader macro themes can drown out specific company news. Should customers delay rollouts, drag out renewals, or if management sounds less upbeat about March, traders are likely to lump security software stocks in with the wider sector.
All eyes now turn to CrowdStrike’s fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 numbers, which hit after the bell on March 3. The company’s conference call is set for 5:00 p.m. Eastern. (Investingnews)
