Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Scotiabank upgraded the stock from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating. The stock had previously closed at $247.55, but opened at $259.17. Scotiabank now has a $300.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $225.00. Cloudflare shares last traded at $256.8210, with a volume of 426,297 shares changing hands.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $230.00 price objective (up from $224.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Cloudflare from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Cloudflare from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Twenty-two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cloudflare news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.11, for a total transaction of $5,618,199.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 47,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,391,291.75. The trade was a 35.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.39, for a total value of $2,323,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 116,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,127,581.87. The trade was a 7.89% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold 671,049 shares of company stock worth $149,042,468 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.66% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank upgraded Cloudflare to sector outperform and lifted its price target to $300, signaling improved confidence in the company’s growth outlook. Scotiabank Upgrades Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) to Sector Outperform
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlighted Cloudflare as a high-growth cybersecurity stock, helped by its July 1 announcement of new classifications, enhanced analytics, and commercial partnerships tied to transparent AI companies, which could support future monetization and demand. Is Cloudflare (NET) the Best High Growth Cybersecurity Stock to Buy Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Matthew Prince disclosed multiple stock sales under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. While the sales were sizable, they were automatic and do not necessarily indicate a change in the company’s fundamentals.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $718,316,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Cloudflare by 135.8% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $906,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,530,872 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 4,042.6% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,399,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,887,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365,598 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in shares of Cloudflare by 82.6% during the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 2,100,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $450,639,000 after purchasing an additional 950,000 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Cloudflare by 697.5% during the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 927,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,402,000 after purchasing an additional 811,297 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare Stock Up 4.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.96. The company has a market cap of $91.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,022.02, a P/E/G ratio of 244.14 and a beta of 1.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $226.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.29.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 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 $639.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $620.83 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. Cloudflare’s revenue was up 33.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Cloudflare has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.190-1.200 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.270-0.270 EPS. Research analysts expect that Cloudflare, Inc. will post 0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.