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CRWD · Forward model · Subscription · Management target case

What has to happen in Subscription

Model as of

This page changes Subscription inside the complete CRWD model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

CRWD forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $94.21 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $2.83B 97% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $14.13B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

The stated $10 billion of fiscal 2031 ARR, priced with the long-term margin model applied. It lands BELOW the base case, and that is the finding: reaching $10 billion by fiscal 2031 asks less of net new ARR than the current run rate already delivers, so hitting the target is not the bull case - it is a deceleration. THE DELTA IS NOW STALE: -1.24% a quarter was solved on the old, smaller ARR base and on nineteen quarters to the target date; on the new basis it implies about $11.1 billion of fiscal 2031 ARR, and roughly -1.82% would be needed to land on $10 billion. The delta was left alone because a roll-forward does not move scenario deltas, so this scenario currently prices a target 11% above the one it is named for.

Subscription

Basis quarter$1.40B
Final quarter$2.83B
Implied CAGR+15%
Final revenue mix97%

The Falcon platform sold as recurring subscriptions, and 95% of revenue. What a quarter can earn is set by the annual recurring revenue already installed at the end of it: a dollar of ARR turns into a quarter of itself in a quarter. Growth is therefore net new ARR compounding on a base that renews at a 115% dollar-based net retention rate, which is why this line is modelled as installed capacity rather than as customers times a price CrowdStrike does not publish.

Last four quarters
2026 Q3 $1.17B Reported
2026 Q4 $1.24B Reported
2027 Q1 $1.32B Reported
2027 Q2 $1.40B Reported
Falcon platform modulesFalcon Flex commitmentsManaged services
ARR base 5841 $M of ARR at the basis quarter ARR of $5,841.4M at 31 July 2026. Derived, not printed: the release rounds to "$5.84 billion" and discloses $332.8M of net new ARR in the quarter, which on the $5,508.6M the Q1 10-Q disclosed gives $5,841.4M. The July-quarter 10-Q, which prints ARR to a tenth of a million, had not been filed when this was written.
Net new ARR 345 $M of ARR/qtr changing +3.0% per quarter $345.0M, the Q3 FY2027 ARR guidance midpoint of $6,186.4M less the $5,841.4M installed. Management's number for the next quarter's build, and it implies 29-31% year-over-year growth in net new ARR.
Utilisation 94% share of a quarter of ending ARR that lands as revenue, gliding toward 97% 93.83%, solved so that one glide step (to 94.02%) applied to guided Q3 ending ARR reproduces the Q3 revenue guide midpoint. It is well below the 95.89% the basis quarter actually delivered, because the Q3 revenue guide is roughly 1.9 points of utilisation - about $29M - below what the same guide's ARR would produce at the realised ratio. Calibrating to the guide imports that conservatism into every quarter.
Revenue per $M of ARR $250000/qtr drifting 0.0% per quarter Definitional: a dollar of annual recurring revenue yields $0.25 in a quarter, so $250,000 per $1M of ARR.
Subscription

Latest: $2.83B (2032Q2E)

Period Value
2024Q2 $690M
2024Q3 $733M
2024Q4 $796M
2025Q1 $872M
2025Q2 $918M
2025Q3 $963M
2025Q4 $1.01B
2026Q1 $1.05B
2026Q2 $1.10B
2026Q3 $1.17B
2026Q4 $1.24B
2027Q1 $1.32B
2027Q2 $1.40B
2027Q3E $1.44B
2027Q4E $1.50B
2028Q1E $1.57B
2028Q2E $1.64B
2028Q3E $1.71B
2028Q4E $1.78B
2029Q1E $1.85B
2029Q2E $1.92B
2029Q3E $1.99B
2029Q4E $2.06B
2030Q1E $2.13B
2030Q2E $2.21B
2030Q3E $2.28B
2030Q4E $2.36B
2031Q1E $2.43B
2031Q2E $2.51B
2031Q3E $2.59B
2031Q4E $2.67B
2032Q1E $2.75B
2032Q2E $2.83B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • Every quarter here is subscription revenue as reported on the face of a CrowdStrike release. Nothing is apportioned and nothing is estimated. The basis quarter is $1,400,291k, three months ended 31 July 2026, Exhibit 99.1 of the 8-K filed 26 August 2026.
  • ARR is measured at period end while revenue accrues through the quarter, which is the whole job of the utilisation input: it was 95.89% of a quarter of ending ARR in the basis quarter, 95.91% the quarter before, and has sat between 94.6% and 95.9% for two years.
  • The 115% dollar-based net retention rate in the thesis is no longer a published number. The release and the slide appendix both define net and gross retention and say both improved sequentially, but neither prints a percentage, and CrowdStrike has not resumed printing one. The model does not depend on the rate - it drives off ARR, which is disclosed - but the thesis quotes a figure the company will not confirm.
  • NET NEW ARR ACCELERATED AND THE DRIVER DOES NOT. Net new ARR was a record $332.8M, up 51% year over year, and the FY2027 net new ARR guide was raised 630bp to +34% growth after a 520bp raise a quarter earlier. The driver still compounds net new ARR at 3% a quarter, 12.6% a year. That assumption is now the loosest thing in this model and a future revision has to settle it; it was left alone here because this pass moves the basis, not the argument.
  • CrowdStrike allocates no operating expense, depreciation or capex to the revenue split, so the margin and capex inputs on this line are ours and no disclosure tests them. Capex quadrupled year over year in the basis quarter, from $30.5M to $124.4M, or 8.5% of revenue against the 6.5% intensity carried here - another thing left alone.
  • Net new ARR is heavily fourth-quarter weighted and this projection carries no seasonality, so a constant build rate lands fiscal 2027 exit ARR at $6,542M, about 1% below the guided $6,603.0-6,611.9M range, while hitting the revenue guide.
  • The previous basis projected $1,375.0M of subscription revenue for this quarter against $1,400.3M reported, a 1.8% miss, all of it the guide-calibrated utilisation being too low.
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