Shares in CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. and Okta Inc. both jumped in late trading today after the two security companies beat expectations in their July quarters.
CrowdStrike shares were up more than 10% after the bell and Okta shares more than 19%. Both raised their full-year outlooks. Executives at each company pointed to enterprise deployment of artificial intelligence agents as the force pulling customers toward larger security commitments.
For its fiscal 2027 second quarter, which ended July 31, CrowdStrike reported adjusted earnings of 31 cents per share, up from 23 cents in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, on revenue of $1.47 billion, up 26% year-over-year. Analysts were expecting 29 cents per share on revenue of $1.44 billion. Per-share figures reflect a four-for-one stock split completed in July.
Net new annual recurring revenue reached $332.8 million, up 51% from a year earlier and well clear of the $284 million to $286 million CrowdStrike guided to in June. Total annual recurring revenue stood at $5.84 billion as of July 31, up 25% year-over-year. Accounts running on Falcon Flex, the flexible licensing arrangement the company has pushed since 2024, carried more than $2.29 billion of that total, and their annual recurring revenue grew 101%. Subscription revenue rose 27%, to $1.4 billion.
The company posted unadjusted net income of $5.3 million, or one cent per share, against a loss of $70.2 million, or seven cents per share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Operating cash flow of $530.3 million and free cash flow of $377.4 million were both second-quarter records. Cash and equivalents grew to $5.01 billion.
“Q2 was the best quarter in CrowdStrike’s history,” founder and Chief Executive George Kurtz said in the company’s earnings release. “The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption means security, and that’s CrowdStrike. Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history.”
Business highlights in the quarter included the unveiling of Continuous Identity for AI Agents. The product extends risk-aware authorization across human, machine and agent identities. CrowdStrike agreed to buy the technology assets of XM Cyber Ltd., a Schwarz Digits company that sells attack path visualization and offensive simulation software, and it widened Project QuiltWorks to the cloud infrastructure layer with Amazon Web Services Inc.
“CrowdStrike’s post-Mythos momentum is showing up in the numbers,” said Dave Vellante, chief analyst of SiliconANGLE sister research firm theCUBE Research. “Record net new ARR of $333 million, up 51% year over year, indicates that the urgency created by AI-powered threats is converting into significant demand.”
Vellante noted that CrowdStrike emphasized the positive impact of Falcon Flex on its earnings call. “I prefer the customer view,” he said. “Customers do not buy contracting vehicles, they buy outcomes. Buyers care about simplifying their complex security estate and improving unit economics. In my view, that is the more important factor. Flex may be the commercial harness, but customer value is the real engine we should pay attention to.”
Overall, he added, “CrowdStrike appears to be turning the post-Mythos security imperative into broader platform adoption.”
CrowdStrike expects third-quarter revenue of $1.523 billion to $1.529 billion and adjusted earnings of 31 cents per share. Full-year revenue guidance now runs from $5.991 billion to $6.011 billion, with adjusted earnings of $1.25 to $1.26. The company also lifted its net new annual recurring revenue growth target for the year by 630 basis points, to 34% at the midpoint.
Okta, whose quarter also ended July 31, delivered adjusted earnings of $1.05 per share, up from 91 cents in the year-earlier quarter, on revenue of $805 million, up 11% year-over-year. Analysts were expecting 96 cents per share on revenue of $792.1 million. Subscription revenue rose 12%, to $793 million.
Remaining performance obligations, the measure of subscription backlog, rose 17%, to $4.858 billion. The current portion, covering the next 12 months, was up 14% at $2.585 billion. Unadjusted net income came to $116 million against $67 million a year ago, while operating cash flow reached $234 million and free cash flow $227 million, or 29% and 28% of revenue. Okta settled the remaining $350 million principal on its 2026 notes in cash during the quarter and finished with $2.299 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
Co-founder and CEO Todd McKinnon attributed the quarter’s success to agent adoption, arguing that every agent “needs a trusted identity and clear controls over what it can access and do.” Okta, he said in the earnings release, is the neutral provider organizations can use to discover agents, govern what they do and respond when something goes wrong. Chief Financial Officer Brett Tighe credited accelerating current RPO, wins among the largest customers and contributions from newer products led by Okta Identity Governance.
Okta also agreed on July 30 to buy identity threat detection company Permiso Security Inc. in a deal reported at just under $200 million. The acquisition is due to close before the end of October.
For the third quarter, Okta expects revenue of $813 million to $817 million, growth of 10%, and adjusted earnings of 92 to 94 cents per share. Full-year revenue guidance moved up to $3.216 billion to $3.226 billion from the $3.185 billion to $3.205 billion range issued in May, adjusted earnings guidance to $3.90 to $3.94 per share from $3.79 to $3.87, and free cash flow guidance to $910 million to $930 million from $855 million to $885 million. About one percentage point of growth is coming out of the revenue outlook because Okta is shifting more professional services work to partners.
CrowdStrike stock had climbed close to 70% this year going into the report, and Okta had spent most of the year trading below where it started. Both had a lot riding on the quarter.