Dive Brief:
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Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. reported record cash flow from operations of $273 million and record free cash flow of $209 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, with executives partly crediting the industry’s resilience amid an otherwise tough economic climate.
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The Austin, Texas-based company reported total revenue rose 48% to $637.4 million in the quarter compared with a year earlier, according to a press release Tuesday. Subscription revenue was $598.3 million, also a 48% increase year-over-year.
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“Overall, in Q4, we landed a record number of net new customers, fueled by growth in enterprise, non-enterprise, and public sector accounts,” CrowdStrike CFO Burt Podbere said during a Tuesday earnings call. “We continue to be very pleased with the success of our land-and-expand strategy.”
Dive Insight:
CrowdStrike is one of a number of cybersecurity companies that are reporting strong financial results lately despite macroeconomic headwinds that are driving down profits in other sectors.
“We believe our strong fourth quarter performance and record Q1 pipeline demonstrate the mission-critical nature of cybersecurity for modern businesses, the resiliency of our market, and CrowdStrike's growing leadership at the cybersecurity platform record,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said during the earnings call.
In February, Palo Alto Networks Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-headquartered cybersecurity firm, reported a total of $1.7 billion in revenue for its second quarter fiscal 2023 period, a 26% spike year over year. SentinelOne Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., generated a total of $115.3 million in revenue for its third quarter fiscal 2023 period, a 106% increase year over year, according to results released in December.
In a survey released last month by Grant Thornton, cybersecurity ranked among the top three challenges faced by finance leaders for the second consecutive quarter. Forty-five percent of respondents ranked cybersecurity as a top-three area of focus, a rise of 11 percentage points over the previous quarter.
The poll also found that CFOs are spending more on cybersecurity amid increased investment in digital transformation.
