CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity technology maker, had not missed a forecast in three years since it came public, until tonight.
The shares are down nineteen percent in late trading after the company’s forecast for this quarter’s revenue came in two percent below consensus estimates for the fiscal fourth quarter ending in January. The company also gave an early indication that its revenue for next year will come in lower than expected.
CrowdStrike is most famous as being the firm working for the Democratic National Committee in 2016 that asserted that Russian operatives had hacked a server of the DNC.
The story this evening is a familiar one now in software circles: slowing deal activity in software land, and sales getting “pushed out.”
In prepared remarks, co-founder and CEO George Kurtz said that the company’s “net new ARR,” a total for contracts in the forward twelve-month period, “was below our expectations as increased macroeconomic headwinds elongated sales cycles with smaller customers and caused some larger customers to pursue multi-phase subscription start dates, which delays ARR recognition until future quarters.”
On tonight’s call with analysts, Kurtz gave more detail. He noted a particular weakness among smaller companies, the non-enterprise types. Some smaller firms were asking for extra time to sign a purchase. That both reduced the amount of ARR signed in the quarter, and also reduced the number of “new logos,” meaning, new customers, that CrowdStrike gained.