At a Glance: The Q·Score

Both CRWD and PANW score 6.2 / 10, each carrying a "Neutral" label. A tied headline score at this level signals that neither company dominates across all five dimensions — strengths in some areas are offset by weaknesses in others. When two stocks share a Q·Score, the dimension-by-dimension breakdown becomes especially important, because the same number can be assembled from very different combinations of data. That is precisely the case here.

Quality — Profitability and Capital Efficiency

The Quality dimension measures how efficiently a business converts revenue into profit and generates returns for shareholders — and here, PANW holds a clear edge.

PANW posts a net profit margin of 7.9%, meaning it keeps roughly $7.90 of every $100 in revenue as profit. Its return on equity (ROE — a measure of how much profit is generated relative to shareholder investment) stands at 4.8%. These are modest figures by broad market standards, but they represent genuine profitability in a sector where many high-growth names are still burning cash.

CRWD, by contrast, shows a net profit margin of -0.6% and an ROE of -0.2% — both marginally negative, indicating the business is not yet converting its substantial revenue base into bottom-line profit on a reported basis. Free cash flow yield data was not available for either company in this dataset. On the numbers provided, the Quality edge belongs to PANW.

Health — Balance Sheet and Execution

The Health dimension examines financial resilience: how comfortably a company can meet its obligations, and how reliably it delivers on earnings expectations.

On earnings execution, both companies are tied at a perfect EPS beat rate of 100% — meaning every quarter captured in the dataset saw each company exceed analyst earnings-per-share estimates. That is a notable consistency signal for both names.

Debt/equity ratio and current ratio data were not separately itemised in this week's dataset, which limits the depth of balance sheet analysis here. With the available data pointing to a dead heat on earnings execution, this dimension does not produce a clear winner between the two — the edge is effectively shared on the execution metric, with neither company able to be separated on the figures provided.

Growth — Revenue, Earnings, and Surprise

Growth is where the data offers one of the more interesting contrasts, despite both companies operating in the same cybersecurity space.

PANW leads on revenue growth, posting 31.1% year-over-year revenue expansion versus CRWD's 25.6%. Both figures are well above what most mature technology companies achieve — double-digit revenue growth at this scale is a meaningful signal of sustained market demand. However, PANW's 5.5 percentage point advantage is notable, particularly given that PANW is the larger company by market capitalisation ($261.3 billion versus CRWD's $194.6 billion). Larger companies typically find it harder to sustain higher growth rates, making PANW's lead here somewhat counterintuitive.

Earnings growth figures were unavailable for both companies in this dataset, so that component cannot be compared directly. On the revenue growth metric alone, the data gives the edge to PANW in this dimension.

Valuation — Price Relative to Fundamentals

Valuation measures how much investors are paying today relative to what a company is expected to earn — and this is where the gap between the two stocks is most pronounced.

The forward P/E ratio — the stock price divided by projected earnings per share over the next twelve months — stands at 122.4x for CRWD and 77.8x for PANW. To put those numbers in context: the broader S&P 500 typically trades in the 18–22x range, and even high-growth technology companies often sit in the 30–50x range. Both stocks carry significant valuation premiums, but CRWD's multiple is roughly 57% higher than PANW's.

On analyst consensus price targets, CRWD's current price of $191.12 sits 4.6% above the consensus target — implying the stock is trading beyond where the average covering analyst currently sees fair value. PANW at $320.59 sits just 0.5% below its consensus target, suggesting the price is broadly in line with analyst expectations. CRWD also sits at a higher position within its 52-week range relative to analyst targets. On every valuation metric available, the data gives the edge to PANW in this dimension.

Sentiment — Analyst Consensus

The Sentiment dimension captures how the professional analyst community is positioned on each stock — the breadth of coverage and the proportion of positive ratings.

Both stocks are covered by exactly 49 analysts, giving each an identical depth of institutional attention. PANW holds a narrow edge on the positive rating ratio, with 80% of covering analysts carrying a positive rating, compared to 77% for CRWD. That 3 percentage point gap is relatively slim and may not be statistically meaningful given the sample size, but it does consistently favour PANW across the sentiment inputs.

One notable divergence worth observing: CRWD's analyst sentiment (77% positive) sits alongside a price that has already moved above the consensus price target, while PANW's 80% positive ratio aligns with a price that is essentially at the consensus target. This means CRWD's positive analyst sentiment is not currently reflected in upside to target — the market price has run ahead of where analysts collectively see value. PANW leads on Sentiment, though the margin is narrow.

What the Data Shows

Despite landing on the same Q·Score of 6.2 ("Neutral"), CRWD and PANW arrive there via different routes. PANW shows stronger numbers on Quality (positive margins and ROE), Growth (higher revenue expansion rate), Valuation (lower forward P/E, price in line with consensus target), and Sentiment (marginally higher positive analyst ratio) — while CRWD matches PANW on earnings execution with a shared 100% EPS beat rate. The dimensions that drove the most visible separation were Valuation and Quality, where the numerical gaps were largest. The Health dimension, constrained by available data, was the closest to a draw.

Explore the Full Comparison

The live, interactive breakdown — updated in real time — is available at quantify.biz/compare/crwd-vs-panw.