The worst is over for CrowdStrike shareholders after steep losses tied to the major global IT outage caused by the company, CNBC’s Jim Cramer predicted Monday. “I think it’s the bottom” in CrowdStrike’s stock price, Cramer said Monday on “Squawk on the Street,” shortly before the opening bell. Shares of CrowdStrike were higher in the premarket and added more than 3% in early regular trading. The stock entered Monday’s session down about 25% since its July 18 close. The following day, a bug in a routine CrowdStrike software update caused a crash for Microsoft’s Windows operating system , wreaking havoc on businesses around the world. Shares fell 11.1% and 13.5% in the first two sessions as investors weighed the potential impact on CrowdStrike’s finances and reputation. Trading in the stock was relatively less volatile in the next four trading days before Monday. CRWD mountain 2024-07-18 CrowdStrike since close July 18, day before global IT outage The declines “were not an overreaction because [the IT outage] was really bad,” Cramer said. However, he said the response by CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz and the company more broadly should calm fears about long-lasting damage to the firm’s standing. Cramer’s CNBC Investing Club owns shares of Palo Alto Networks , a rival to CrowdStrike in the cybersecurity industry. The Club also owns Microsoft . Some Wall Street analysts also have recently come to CrowdStrike’s defense, Cramer pointed out. In a note to clients Monday, Morgan Stanley analysts’ said their partner checks indicated “limited churn risk so far.” Analysts said they have become “slightly more confident” that CrowdStrike can limit reputational damage. They maintained their buy-equivalent rating on the stock, though they lowered their price target to $360 a share from $396. That implies about 40.5% upside from Friday’s close.
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