Oppenheimer Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Stock

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) had its price target hoisted by equities research analysts at Oppenheimer from $330.00 to $380.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 21.25% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Susquehanna upped their target price on Cloudflare from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Mizuho increased their price target on Cloudflare from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Benchmark lowered shares of Cloudflare to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.22.

Cloudflare Trading Up 10.2%

NET stock traded up $28.97 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $313.40. The stock had a trading volume of 2,102,692 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,289,790. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $110.78 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,259.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 219.10 and a beta of 1.65. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $255.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $218.26. Cloudflare has a 1-year low of $158.83 and a 1-year high of $323.62.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.02. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.65% and a negative net margin of 3.72%.The firm had revenue of $696.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $664.66 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.98, for a total transaction of $7,506,418.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 47,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,148,001.50. The trade was a 42.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,422 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.09, for a total transaction of $13,057,795.98. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 749,532 shares of company stock worth $183,882,628. Insiders own 10.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NET. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. HM Payson & Co. bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. CX Institutional grew its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 49.4% in the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 133 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare beat second-quarter expectations. Revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.1 million, exceeding estimates of approximately $664.7 million. Adjusted earnings of $0.29 per share also topped the $0.27 consensus. Cloudflare Q2 results
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its full-year forecast above analyst expectations. Cloudflare now expects 2026 revenue of roughly $2.864 billion to $2.870 billion, up from its prior $2.805 billion-$2.813 billion range. Third-quarter guidance of $736 million-$737 million in revenue and $0.34 EPS also exceeded consensus estimates. Cloudflare raises outlook
• Positive Sentiment: AI-agent traffic is supporting demand. Cloudflare said businesses increasingly rely on its network to route and secure AI applications. New offerings, including the AEO Visibility Dashboard, Identity-Aware AI Gateway and Cloudflare OS, could broaden its enterprise opportunity. Market update on Cloudflare
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG Research raised its price target. BTIG increased its target from $314 to $382 and reiterated a Buy rating, adding to favorable Wall Street commentary after the earnings release. BTIG price-target update
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains mixed. The broader consensus is still favorable, but some firms maintain Hold or Sell ratings. Cloudflare’s high valuation and elevated volatility make the shares sensitive to changes in growth expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling could pressure sentiment. CEO Matthew Prince, CFO Thomas Seifert and director Carl Ledbetter reported sales totaling millions of dollars. The transactions were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans and therefore do not necessarily indicate deteriorating confidence, but they may encourage profit-taking. Cloudflare insider filing

Cloudflare Company Profile

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.