CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD)

Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT)

The NOPAT demonstrates a strong upward trajectory from 2020 to 2024, increasing from $139,090 thousand to a peak of $690,745 thousand. However, in 2025, there is a noticeable decline to $516,439 thousand. This pattern suggests significant growth over the initial years followed by a reduction in operating profit in the most recent period.

Cost of Capital

The cost of capital remains relatively stable throughout the period, ranging narrowly between 15.96% and 16.21%. This consistency indicates a steady risk profile and capital structure cost for the company over the years.

Invested Capital

The invested capital shows a continuous and substantial increase, starting at $669,497 thousand in 2020 and rising steadily to $7,614,215 thousand by 2025. This trend reflects ongoing capital investment and expansion efforts.

Economic Profit

Economic profit starts positively in 2020 at $30,588 thousand but turns negative from 2021 onwards, with increasing losses over the years. Notably, losses deepen to -$713,297 thousand in 2025. This indicates that despite growing NOPAT and invested capital, the returns are insufficient to cover the cost of capital, leading to value erosion.

Net Income (Loss) Attributable to CrowdStrike

The net income figures demonstrate significant variability over the periods. Starting with a net loss of approximately $141.8 million in the year ending January 2020, the loss decreased to about $92.6 million in January 2021. However, this was followed by an increased loss to roughly $234.8 million in January 2022. Thereafter, the loss narrowed to $183.2 million in 2023. Notably, in 2024, there was a reversal to a positive net income of $89.3 million, indicating a substantial recovery. In the following year, 2025, the figure returned to a loss, though much smaller than previous years, at approximately $19.3 million.

Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT)

The NOPAT values exhibit a consistent and strong upward trend over the years observed. Starting at $139.1 million in 2020, there was a steep increase to $246.0 million in 2021. The upward momentum continued in 2022 with $389.9 million, then sharply increased to $625.9 million in 2023. In 2024, NOPAT further grew to $690.7 million before experiencing a decline to $516.4 million in 2025. Despite the decrease in the final year, the overall trend across the period indicates strong growth in operational profitability after taxes.

Summary of Trends and Insights

The financial data reveals a divergence between net income and NOPAT trends. While net income shows volatility with alternating losses and positive results, NOPAT consistently increased until 2024 before slightly declining in 2025. This suggests that operational efficiency and profitability improvements were achieved, but other factors such as non-operating expenses, taxes, or one-time items might have adversely impacted the net income figures. The significant positive net income in 2024 stands out as an anomaly compared to other years with net losses. The decreasing net loss in 2025 alongside a decline in NOPAT might indicate emerging challenges or increased costs affecting overall profitability despite strong operational earnings.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes shows significant fluctuation over the observed periods. From 2020 to 2021, there is a noticeable increase from approximately 2 million to nearly 4.8 million US dollars. This upward trend continues sharply into 2022, reaching over 72 million US dollars. However, in 2023, the provision declines substantially to around 22 million US dollars before increasing again in the subsequent years, rising to about 32 million and then further to approximately 71 million US dollars by 2025. This pattern indicates periods of considerable variability in tax provisioning, suggesting changes in taxable income or adjustments in tax strategy during these years.

Cash Operating Taxes

Cash operating taxes follow a somewhat similar but less volatile pattern compared to the provision for income taxes. Starting at close to 2.8 million US dollars in 2020, the cash taxes increase to around 6 million US dollars in 2021. There is a significant spike in 2022 reaching over 91 million US dollars, which is a marked increase from previous years. Following this peak, the cash tax payments decrease sharply to approximately 15.8 million US dollars in 2023, then decline further to just over 10 million in 2024, before increasing again to about 45.9 million US dollars in 2025. The fluctuations in cash taxes suggest variability in actual tax payments that may reflect changes in cash flows or timing differences relative to the provision for income taxes.

Comparison and Insights

Both provision for income taxes and cash operating taxes exhibit significant fluctuations, with peaks around 2022, followed by declines and then increases toward 2025. The provision generally exceeds the cash taxes in some years, particularly noticeable in 2022, indicating potential deferred tax liabilities or adjustments in tax accounting treatments. The volatile nature of both metrics implies an underlying variability in taxable income or strategic tax management, possibly linked to changes in operating performance or tax regulations during the analyzed periods.

The financial data indicates significant changes in the capital structure and equity position over the observed periods.

Total Reported Debt & Leases

The reported debt and leases showed a substantial increase from approximately $50.7 million in early 2020 to around $779.0 million in early 2021. From 2021 through 2025, the value of reported debt and leases remained relatively stable, fluctuating slightly around the $780 million mark. This suggests that after a sharp rise in debt, the company maintained a consistent level of liabilities related to debt and leases.

Total Stockholders’ Equity

Stockholders’ equity consistently increased throughout the period, starting from approximately $742.1 million at the beginning of 2020 and rising to nearly $3.28 billion by January 2025. The growth trend appears to accelerate over time, with a remarkable increase especially after 2022, indicating a significant strengthening of the company's equity base and potentially reflecting retained earnings growth, capital raises, or other equity improvements.

Invested Capital

Invested capital experienced a dramatic increase, jumping from about $669.5 million in 2020 to roughly $2.52 billion in 2021. This upward trend continued steadily, reaching over $7.61 billion by early 2025. The data reflects substantial investments and growth in company assets financed by both debt and equity over these years, underscoring rapid expansion or capital deployment activities.

Overall, the data reveals a period of rapid growth in invested capital accompanied by a stable level of debt and a strong expansion of stockholders’ equity. The company's capital structure appears to have shifted towards greater equity financing while maintaining a steady debt position. This trend suggests increased financial strength and capacity to support ongoing operations and growth initiatives.

Economic Profit

The economic profit demonstrates a declining trend throughout the analyzed period. Starting at a positive value of 30,588 thousand US dollars in early 2020, it shifts to negative territory by 2021 with -158,690 thousand US dollars. Subsequently, it remains negative and worsens over time, reaching -713,297 thousand US dollars by early 2025. This persistent negative economic profit indicates that the company has been generating returns below its cost of capital during this timeframe.

Invested Capital

Invested capital shows a consistent upward trajectory from 669,497 thousand US dollars in 2020 to 7,614,215 thousand US dollars by 2025. The expansion suggests continuous investment or growth in the company’s asset base over the six-year period. This substantial increase reflects an aggressive capacity or business scale growth strategy.

Economic Spread Ratio

The economic spread ratio also reveals a downward trend, starting at 4.57% in 2020 and shifting into negative values each subsequent year. It deteriorates steadily to -9.37% by 2025. The negative spread suggests that the returns generated on invested capital are insufficient to cover the cost of capital, which aligns with the observed negative economic profit. The declining magnitude of the economic spread ratio indicates progressively worsening profitability relative to the capital employed.

The financial data reveals significant fluctuations in both economic profit and revenue over the analyzed periods. Adjusted revenue demonstrates a consistent and substantial growth trend, increasing from approximately $762.5 million in 2020 to an estimated $4.628 billion in 2025. This indicates a strong upward trajectory in the company's top-line performance.

Conversely, economic profit exhibits considerable volatility and a generally declining trend. The company recorded a positive economic profit of about $30.6 million in 2020, but this figure turned negative starting in 2021 and has further declined each year, reaching an estimated loss of approximately $713.3 million by 2025. This negative economic profit suggests that despite growing revenues, the company is incurring costs or experiencing inefficiencies that outweigh its earnings, leading to value destruction for shareholders.

The economic profit margin corroborates this observation by showing a deterioration over the period. From a positive margin of 4.01% in 2020, the margin drops sharply into negative territory from 2021 onwards, reaching -15.41% in 2025. This margin trend indicates that profitability relative to revenue is declining significantly, implying increasing pressure on operating efficiencies or rising costs relative to revenue growth.

Revenue Trends

Annual adjusted revenue has more than quintupled over the six-year span, reflecting robust sales growth and market expansion.

Economic Profit Trends

Economic profit shifted from positive to increasingly negative values, highlighting growing challenges in generating shareholder value despite rising sales.

Profitability Margins

The decline in economic profit margin from a modest positive rate to a substantially negative percentage points to deteriorating profitability and potentially escalating costs or investments not yet yielding returns.