NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 9:42 PM ET — Market closed
- CrowdStrike shares ended down 1.1% on Monday at $475.91.
- A new SEC filing outlines a performance-based equity award for CEO George Kurtz that could deliver up to 600,000 shares.
- Investors head into Tuesday watching Fed minutes and holiday-thinned trading.
CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD.O) disclosed a new performance-based equity award for Chief Executive George Kurtz that could deliver up to 600,000 shares if the stock outperforms most of the S&P 500 over the next three years, a filing showed. The cybersecurity firm said the award carries a 300,000-unit target and can pay out nothing if performance falls below a threshold tied to relative returns. CrowdStrike shares ended down 1.1% at $475.91. SEC
The filing lands as investors reassess how much upside is left in high-growth software names into 2026, with trading desks thinning out around the New Year holiday. “It was ‘hard to see’ what would drive shares of ‘well-hyped’ AI-related companies ‘substantially higher’ next year,” Melissa Brown, managing director of investment decision research at SimCorp, said in a Reuters video report. Reuters
For CrowdStrike, the disclosure also underlines what the board wants management focused on: sustaining market-beating stock performance while chasing a long runway in security software. The company’s filing ties the incentive to an ambition to reach $20 billion in annual recurring revenue, or ARR — a widely watched snapshot of subscription revenue run-rate for software sold on recurring contracts.
Performance stock units, or PSUs, are equity awards that vest only if preset goals are met, rather than simply with time served. In this case, the metric is total shareholder return, or TSR, meaning the stock’s gain including dividends, measured against S&P 500 constituents over the stated period.
A separate Form 4 filing showed Chief Accounting Officer Anurag Saha sold 836 shares on Dec. 24 at $476.83 per share, while reporting beneficial ownership of 43,726 shares, including shares tied to restricted stock units.
CrowdStrike traded between $474.64 and $483.10 on Monday. Shares of peers Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and Zscaler also ended lower, down about 0.8% to 1.1% in the session.
The broader tape also leaned risk-off, with U.S. stocks ending down as large technology shares lost momentum going into year-end. Reuters
Investors continue to use CrowdStrike as a read-through on demand for endpoint and cloud security, an area where customers have been trying to consolidate tools and reduce the number of security dashboards they manage. That push has generally favored platform vendors — but it also keeps scrutiny high on execution and customer retention.
Before the next session, traders will likely gauge whether the compensation disclosure changes sentiment on valuation and dilution, or is viewed as routine retention planning after a strong multi-year run. The company framed the award as a way to keep Kurtz leading the business as it pursues its long-term growth plan.
Macro headlines may do more of the near-term driving. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release minutes from its Dec. 9–10 policy meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, while the weekly jobless claims report is set for Wednesday, Dec. 31, a day when U.S. bond markets are scheduled to close early ahead of New Year’s Day.
The next major company catalyst is the next earnings report, with Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar listing March 10, 2026 after market close. Until then, investors are likely to keep the focus on subscription momentum — especially net new ARR and margin trends — as the market digests the year’s final filing-driven headlines.
