Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Raised to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on NET. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $300.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Benchmark lowered shares of Cloudflare to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Cloudflare from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Wedbush began coverage on Cloudflare in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Twenty-four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.21.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

NYSE NET opened at $266.54 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $319.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $249.01. Cloudflare has a fifty-two week low of $158.83 and a fifty-two week high of $370.35. The company has a market cap of $94.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -459.54, a P/E/G ratio of 211.89 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $696.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $664.66 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 3.88% and a negative net margin of 8.21%. Cloudflare’s revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.29, for a total value of $11,494,614.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 69,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,301,934.75. The trade was a 32.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas Seifert sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.59, for a total value of $3,744,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 104,958 shares in the company, valued at $31,444,367.22. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 259,057 shares of company stock valued at $79,516,905. Corporate insiders own 10.66% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NET. Lido Advisors LLC increased its position in Cloudflare by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 22,985 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 4,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,597,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Finally, 71 West Capital Partners lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. 71 West Capital Partners now owns 1,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the period. 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: JPMorgan upgraded Cloudflare from Neutral to Overweight after the recent selloff, arguing the decline has improved the risk-reward and that revenue growth could accelerate. The bank set a $350 price target. JPMorgan upgrades Cloudflare to Overweight
• Positive Sentiment: A Polen Capital investor letter pointed to accelerating revenue growth and a raised outlook as reasons for an outperform view on NET, offering a constructive long-term growth perspective. Cloudflare shares outperform following accelerating revenue growth and raised outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Cloudflare’s upcoming Q3 results are the key near-term catalyst. The earnings preview coverage highlights the report and investor focus on what comes next for NET, but provides no results yet. Cloudflare reports Q3 results tomorrow
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation remains a concern ahead of earnings. NET has retreated from its October high, while reported insider selling and options-market signals point to caution about a possible post-earnings decline. Insiders sell as options market points to a drop after earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies lowered its price target to $320 from $350, reflecting a more cautious outlook even though the revised target remains above the price cited in the coverage. Jefferies lowers Cloudflare price target

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc (NYSE: NET) provides cloud connectivity, security and performance services for websites, applications, corporate networks and other internet-connected resources. Its global network is designed to help organizations improve the reliability, speed and security of digital services while reducing the complexity of managing internet infrastructure.

The company’s offerings include content delivery and authoritative domain name system services, distributed denial-of-service protection, web application and application programming interface security, bot management, and network security tools.