By Angela Palumbo
CrowdStrike Holdings stock took off after a Morgan Stanley analyst raised his target for the price by 50%, citing mounting cyberattacks and new technology meant to fight them.
Morgan Stanley analyst Hamza Fodderwala upgraded shares of CrowdStrike to Overweight from Equal Weight and increased his price target to $304 from $203 on Tuesday. That implies a 16% increase from the stock’s closing price of $261.28 on Monday.
“We see an improving demand outlook for CRWD as accelerating cyberattacks, multiple new products and GenAI tailwinds drive estimates upside,” Fodderwala said in a research note.
CrowdStrike helps clients to prevent and deal with breaches. Demand for its products and services is high as cyberattacks continued to proliferate last year. Clorox, Alphabet’s Google, MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment all faced attacks in 2023.
“Ransomware attacks are accelerating, up >70% last year. This is driving stronger demand for CRWD’s incident response and endpoint security services,” Fodderwala said.
Fodderwala isn’t the only analyst to be optimistic about the stock. Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron rates the stock as Outperform with a $300 price target, naming it a top pick for 2024 in a research note on Jan. 5.
Kidron wrote that high-profile security breaches will lead companies to continue to “prioritize cybersecurity investment in large enterprises, and we view platform vendors like CrowdStrike as well-positioned to capture an outsized share of spend.”