CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD)

Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT)

The net operating profit after taxes has exhibited significant growth from 2020 to 2024, increasing from $139.1 million to $690.7 million. However, in 2025, there was a notable decline to $516.4 million, representing a reduction of approximately 25% compared to the prior year. This overall upward trend until 2024 suggests strong operating performance before the recent downturn.

Cost of Capital

The cost of capital has remained relatively stable across the examined period, fluctuating mildly between 16.19% and 16.44%. This suggests a consistent capital financing environment without significant changes in risk perception or capital structure.

Invested Capital

Invested capital has demonstrated a persistent increase over the years, expanding from $669.5 million in 2020 to $7.6 billion by 2025. This more than elevenfold increase indicates substantial reinvestment or asset acquisition, pointing toward aggressive growth or expansion strategies.

Economic Profit

Despite the growth in operating profit and invested capital, the economic profit has remained negative from 2021 onwards, reaching a considerable deficit of $731.3 million in 2025. The data shows a downward trend in economic profit after a positive value of $29.0 million in 2020, implying that the returns generated have not been sufficient to cover the cost of capital. The widening negative economic profit suggests that the company's investments have not achieved expected levels of value creation during this period.

Overall Analysis

The financial metrics reveal a company that has rapidly increased its invested capital and operating profits until 2024, but with a declining net operating profit in 2025. The persistently negative economic profit highlights concerns about the efficiency of capital utilization and long-term value creation. Stable cost of capital implies external financing conditions are consistent, so the negative economic profit likely stems from operational or strategic factors affecting returns relative to invested capital.

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.

The financial data reflects significant challenges in generating economic profit over the analyzed periods. Initially, there was a positive economic profit, but subsequent years show consistent and substantial economic losses, with the loss magnitude increasing sharply towards the most recent year.

Economic profit

Starting from a positive figure, the company experiences economic profit declines, turning negative in the second period and remaining so throughout. The losses deepen progressively, culminating in a substantial negative value by the last reported year, indicating challenges in value creation relative to invested capital.

Invested capital

Invested capital shows a steady and marked increase over the period, growing from under $700 million to over $7.6 billion. This growth indicates a considerable expansion in asset base or investments, suggesting aggressive scaling or capital deployment strategies.

Economic spread ratio

The economic spread begins positively but turns negative from the second period onward, reflecting that the returns on invested capital are below the cost of capital. The spread ratio deteriorates across periods, reaching nearly -10% in the last year, underscoring diminishing efficiency in capital use.

Overall, the data suggests that while the company has significantly increased its capital investment, it has struggled to generate returns above its cost of capital, resulting in mounting economic losses. This trend points to potential inefficiencies or challenges in operational performance, profitability, or market conditions impacting the company’s value creation.

The financial data reflects several notable trends over the analysis period ending January 31, 2025. The adjusted revenue of the company has demonstrated a robust and consistent upward trajectory. It increased from approximately $762.5 million in the fiscal year 2020 to nearly $4.63 billion in 2025, indicating strong top-line growth and expansion in the company’s operations or market reach.

Contrasting with the revenue growth, the economic profit figures reveal a less favorable pattern. Initially, there was a positive economic profit of about $29 million in 2020, but this turned negative starting in 2021 and has deteriorated continuously over the years. By 2025, the economic profit had declined substantially to a loss of over $731 million. This decline suggests that despite increasing revenue, the company has faced rising costs or inefficiencies that have eroded profitability.

The economic profit margin, which measures economic profit relative to revenue, confirms this interpretation. It started at a positive margin of 3.8% in 2020 but shifted negative in 2021 and continued to decline, reaching -15.8% by 2025. This indicates that the company is not only losing economic profit but also that the losses are growing as a percentage of the revenue base. The trend portrays increasing challenges in generating value beyond the cost of capital.

Adjusted Revenue

Consistently growing from $762.5 million in 2020 to $4.63 billion in 2025, evidencing strong market or operational expansion.

Economic Profit

Transitioned from a positive $29 million in 2020 to an increasing negative trend, reaching a substantial loss over $731 million by 2025, indicating deteriorating profitability despite revenue gains.

Economic Profit Margin

Shifted from a positive margin of 3.8% in 2020 to negative margins throughout subsequent years, declining to -15.8% in 2025, signifying rising costs relative to revenues and diminishing economic value creation.