NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 22:02 ET — Market closed.
- CrowdStrike shares closed about flat at $475.63.
- A filing disclosed a new performance-based equity award for CEO George Kurtz tied to returns versus the S&P 500.
- A separate Form 4 showed the company’s chief accounting officer sold shares under a pre-arranged trading plan.
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) shares closed down about 0.1% at $475.63 on Tuesday after a filing showed the cybersecurity firm approved a new performance-based equity award for Chief Executive George Kurtz. The award is for a target 300,000 performance stock units — stock grants that vest only if targets are met — and can pay out between zero and 600,000 shares based on CrowdStrike’s three-year total shareholder return, or stock gains including dividends, versus S&P 500 constituents. The filing said the payout would be zero below the 25th percentile of relative performance and could reach double the target at the 90th percentile or above. SEC
Why this matters now is simple: executive pay is back in focus for software investors as boards try to keep leadership teams in place while shareholders demand tighter links between compensation and returns. Performance-based stock awards can also affect dilution and governance votes, especially going into proxy season.
The timing also matters. Year-end trading tends to be thinner, which can magnify reactions to corporate filings and shifts in positioning across the market even when a stock’s day-to-day move looks modest.
At Tuesday’s close, the award’s maximum 600,000-share payout would be worth about $285 million, though the final number depends on how the stock performs against the broader index basket over the three-year window. Investors often treat relative-return plans as a signal that boards are trying to align incentives with what shareholders actually earn.
Separately, a Form 4 filing showed Chief Accounting Officer Anurag Saha sold 836 shares on Dec. 24 at an average price of $476.83, a transaction worth about $399,000. The filing indicated the trade was made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a pre-arranged program that can allow executives to sell shares on a set schedule. SEC
Broader markets offered little help for direction. U.S. stocks ended fractionally lower in choppy, holiday-thin trading after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed officials debated risks to the outlook, Reuters reported. “It’s just a healthy rebalancing of allocations more so than an emotionally driven sell-off,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. Reuters
CrowdStrike is often traded in the same basket as other high-growth cybersecurity names, including Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler. That can leave the stock sensitive to rate expectations, since higher yields tend to weigh on the valuations of long-duration growth companies.
For some investors, the immediate question is less about Tuesday’s tape and more about what the filing says about the board’s priorities. The company framed the award as a retention tool in a competitive market for cybersecurity talent, while tying payout to shareholder returns.
Before Wednesday’s session, traders will be watching whether CRWD holds above Tuesday’s $472.15 low after a narrow $472–$478 trading range. Moves outside tight bands can attract momentum flows, particularly when liquidity is light.
Macro remains a swing factor for richly valued software stocks into the new year, with investors watching how quickly the Fed moves after its December rate cut and what that means for risk appetite. Any fresh read-through from rates or big-cap tech could spill into cybersecurity names.
The next major company catalyst is the next earnings report, with MarketBeat estimating CrowdStrike’s next release for March 3, 2026, while noting the date has not been confirmed. Investors will be looking for updates on annual recurring revenue momentum and operating margins alongside any commentary on share-based compensation. MarketBeat
For now, CRWD ended the day near $476, leaving investors to weigh a governance-focused filing against broader year-end market churn.
