CRWD · Technology(services-prepackaged software) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2026-01-31
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. reported revenue of $4.8 billion in fiscal 2026, after growing 50.9% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from -110.7% in 2018 to -6.1%, and it earned -7.2% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $6.1 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 24.1% went to acquisitions and 21.0% back into the business. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 2.06 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20264.8B+50.9% a year over 9 years
Operating margin-6.1%gross margin 74.7%
Return on invested capital-7.2%-5.7% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay213.6M4.4% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDANet cash4.5B more cash than debt
Piotroski F-score4/9tests of improvement passed
Share counts are in today's shares. The SEC's filings restate only recent years after a split, so these jumps were read as splits and the older years scaled to match — otherwise per-share figures would compare different units:
5-for-1 before fiscal 2019.
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-2.0B02.0B4.0B6.0B
2018Revenue 118.8MOperating income -131.4M
2019Revenue 249.8MOperating income -136.9M
2019
2020Revenue 481.4MOperating income -146.1M
2021Revenue 874.4MOperating income -92.5M
2022Revenue 1.5BOperating income -142.5M
2023Revenue 2.2BOperating income -190.1M
2024Revenue 3.1BOperating income -19.1M
2025Revenue 4.0BOperating income -116.4M
2026Revenue 4.8BOperating income -293.3M
2018201920192020202120222023202420252026
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+29.0%
+40.6%
+50.9%
Free cash flow per share
+20.0%
+30.2%
—
Shares
+2.4%
+2.8%
—
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
-3.7%
Return on assets
-1.5%
Asset turnover
0.43×
Research & development
28.8% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
13.9% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-500.0M0500.0M1.0B1.5B
2018Net income -135.5MFree cash flow -81.7MAfter stock-based pay -94.0M
2019Net income -140.1MFree cash flow -58.8MAfter stock-based pay -79.3M
2019
2020Net income -141.8MFree cash flow 19.7MAfter stock-based pay -60.2M
2021Net income -92.6MFree cash flow 303.8MAfter stock-based pay 154.1M
2022Net income -234.8MFree cash flow 462.6MAfter stock-based pay 152.7M
2023Net income -183.2MFree cash flow 706.0MAfter stock-based pay 179.5M
2024Net income 72.2MFree cash flow 989.7MAfter stock-based pay 341.0M
2025Net income -15.2MFree cash flow 1.1BAfter stock-based pay 265.5M
2026Net income -162.5MFree cash flow 1.3BAfter stock-based pay 213.6M
2018201920192020202120222023202420252026
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2018–2026
6.1B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 21%1.3B
Acquisitions 24%1.5B
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 0%2.3M
Kept, or used to pay down debt 55%3.3B
Over the same years it paid 3.7B in stock. The buybacks did not even cover what was handed out in stock.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-2.00$0.00$2.00$4.00$6.00
2018
2019Earnings per share $-0.59Free cash flow per share $-0.25
2019
2020Earnings per share $-0.96Free cash flow per share $0.13
2021Earnings per share $-0.43Free cash flow per share $1.39
2022Earnings per share $-1.03Free cash flow per share $2.04
2023Earnings per share $-0.79Free cash flow per share $3.03
2024Earnings per share $0.30Free cash flow per share $4.06
2025Earnings per share $-0.06Free cash flow per share $4.60
2026Earnings per share $-0.65Free cash flow per share $5.23
2018201920192020202120222023202420252026
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
100.0M150.0M200.0M250.0M300.0M
2018
2019Diluted shares 237.1M
2019
2020Diluted shares 148.1M
2021Diluted shares 217.8M
2022Diluted shares 227.1M
2023Diluted shares 233.1M
2024Diluted shares 243.6M
2025Diluted shares 244.8M
2026Diluted shares 250.6M
2018201920192020202120222023202420252026
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-6.0B-4.0B-2.0B0
2018
2019
2019
2020Net debt -264.8M
2021Net debt -1.2B
2022Net debt -1.3B
2023Net debt -1.7B
2024Net debt -2.6B
2025Net debt -3.6B
2026Net debt -4.5B
2018201920192020202120222023202420252026
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
-10× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.77 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 103d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 9 tests passed
✕ProfitableReturn on assets above zerofailed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✕Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforefailed
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
2.06grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.29 × 6.56+1.91
Retained earnings ÷ assets -0.12 × 3.26-0.38
Operating income ÷ assets -0.03 × 6.72-0.18
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.67 × 1.05+0.70
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.97below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.99+0.91
Gross margin slipping 1.00+0.53
Soft assets 1.17+0.47
Sales growth 1.22+1.09
Slower depreciation 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.12
Overheads vs sales 1.14-0.20
Profit not in cash -0.16-0.75
Leverage rising 0.92-0.30
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
The effective tax rate is -26.9%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.