CrowdStrike falls after disappointing earnings outlook

(Bloomberg) — CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. gave weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit guidance, disappointing investors who have been waiting for signs that the cybersecurity company has recovered from a massive summer outage.

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The company expects adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 86 cents per share, it said in a statement Tuesday. Analysts expected 87 cents, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Shares of CrowdStrike fell 1.5% in extended trading after the results were announced.

The report is the company’s second since a faulty CrowdStrike update affected millions of devices on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows systems. caused it to crash. The outage, which occurred on July 19, affected a wide range of industries, including air travel, banking and healthcare. The company posted revenue that beat expectations three months ago, a sign that investors expected the global IT outage would not have a material impact on its finances.

Third-quarter sales were a bright spot in Tuesday’s report. Revenue in the period was $1.01 billion, beating Wall Street expectations.

The outage crippled Delta Airlines’ operations for days and cost the airline at least $500 million in out-of-pocket losses, according to a lawsuit filed against CrowdStrike in October. CrowdStrike said in a statement at the time that Delta blamed Delta’s “failure to update its aging IT infrastructure.”

(Updates with additional information throughout.)

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