DZ Bank Upgrades Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) to Buy

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by equities research analysts at DZ Bank from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Friday,Finviz reports. The brokerage currently has a $215.00 price objective on the stock. DZ Bank’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.92% from the stock’s previous close.

NET has been the subject of several other research reports. New Street Research set a $140.00 price target on Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $220.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $255.00 to $225.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $232.11.

Cloudflare Price Performance

Shares of NET opened at $185.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.04. Cloudflare has a fifty-two week low of $89.42 and a fifty-two week high of $260.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $190.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $204.79. The company has a market capitalization of $64.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -639.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 164.18 and a beta of 1.97.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 7.40% and a negative net margin of 4.72%.The firm had revenue of $614.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $591.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In related news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.32, for a total transaction of $10,231,642.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 22,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,331,221. The trade was a 70.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 41,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.18, for a total transaction of $8,069,149.90. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 137,486 shares in the company, valued at $26,697,031.48. The trade was a 23.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 633,347 shares of company stock valued at $124,873,834 in the last ninety days. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter valued at about $138,660,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in Cloudflare by 322.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 65,182 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,987,000 after purchasing an additional 49,749 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 1.0% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 618,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,759,000 after purchasing an additional 5,939 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare during the second quarter valued at approximately $87,868,000. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 27.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 43,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,416,000 after buying an additional 9,527 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

More Cloudflare News

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and bullish guidance — Cloudflare reported revenue of $614.5M (+33.6% YoY) and EPS above consensus, and issued full-year revenue guidance ahead of Street estimates; management cited record ACV and RPO strength. Cloudflare Q4 and guidance
• Positive Sentiment: AI-agent driven revenue tailwind — Management and multiple reports point to rising agentic traffic (e.g., Moltbot) increasing demand for Cloudflare’s security and networking services, framing a “virtuous flywheel” for growth. CNBC: AI agent wave
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and higher targets — Several firms raised or reinforced bullish views (e.g., Robert W. Baird upgrade to outperform with a $260 PT; Wells Fargo and Barclays raised targets), supporting upside expectations. Zacks: Baird upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Unusually large call buying — Traders bought ~13,474 call options in one session, signaling speculative bullish positioning around the post-earnings move. Options activity report
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst reactions — Some firms (e.g., Cantor Fitzgerald) kept neutral ratings even as others upped targets, reflecting differing views on valuation vs. growth. Zacks: analyst overview
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling disclosed — Director John Graham‑Cumming sold 2,520 shares (small vs. his holdings); insiders trimming can create short-term nervousness. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Institutional profit-taking and some PT cuts — Reports show at least one institutional seller trimming its stake and a few analysts trimmed price targets (e.g., Scotiabank), adding short-term downward pressure on sentiment. TickerReport: analyst PT changes

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc is a global web infrastructure and security company that provides a suite of services designed to improve the performance, reliability and security of internet properties. Its core offerings include a content delivery network (CDN), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, managed DNS, and a web application firewall (WAF). Cloudflare also provides tools for bot management, SSL/TLS, load balancing and rate limiting to help organizations maintain uptime and protect web applications from attack.

In addition to traditional edge and security services, Cloudflare has expanded into edge computing and developer platforms.