CrowdStrike dropped 7% to $199 and Palo Alto Networks fell 5% despite Truist raising CRWD's price target to $245 with a Buy rating. Rubrik slipped under 1% and SailPoint gained while Truist named both preferred picks for beat-and-raise quarters over large-cap peers. CrowdStrike reports August 26 with consensus expecting $1.4 billion in revenue and Polymarket pricing in an 89% probability of a beat.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Palo Alto Networks didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Although the NASDAQ 100 is trading slightly in the green, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) stock is down 7% to $198.99 midday Wednesday.
The decline comes even after Truist raised its price target on the stock sharply ahead of next week's earnings. Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) stock is also down 5% to $355.54 in the same session. The selloff pulls in CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks on a day with no company-specific catalyst identified.
Broad software and technology selling appears to be driving the move, and cybersecurity software is falling with the broader complex rather than acting as an obvious safe haven from AI-hardware rotation. CrowdStrike stock is up 82% year to date through Tuesday's close. Palo Alto Networks stock is up 103% over the same window.
Both names have run hard into a crowded earnings week, and today's drawdown is happening from elevated multiples that leave little room for disappointment. The Truist note leans into that setup constructively for CrowdStrike, yet the stock is trading as if positioning matters more than fundamentals ahead of earnings. Traders may want to keep an eye on whether the pre-earnings drift extends into next week or resets before the release.
Truist analyst Junaid Siddiqui raised CrowdStrike's price target to $245 from $187.50 while keeping a Buy rating. The firm called cybersecurity spending resilient overall and described the CrowdStrike setup as "constructive" heading into earnings. Siddiqui also raised Rubrik's price target to $135 from $90, and SailPoint's price target to $23 from $18, both Buy-rated, as part of an off-cycle software earnings preview.
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