Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Stock Rating Reaffirmed as “Overweight” by Piper Sandler

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by analysts at Piper Sandler in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $337.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $333.00. Piper Sandler‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 38.23% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on Cloudflare from $380.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. BTIG Research raised their price target on Cloudflare from $382.00 to $413.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $355.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Cloudflare to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twenty-five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cloudflare currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.75.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

NET opened at $243.79 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $319.02 and its 200-day moving average is $249.31. The stock has a market cap of $86.17 billion, a PE ratio of -420.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 206.44 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Cloudflare has a twelve month low of $158.83 and a twelve month high of $370.35.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.04. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 3.88% and a negative net margin of 8.21%. The business had revenue of $782.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $737.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Cloudflare news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.29, for a total value of $11,494,614.87. Following the sale, the insider directly 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.59, for a total transaction of $3,744,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 104,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,444,367.22. This trade represents a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 259,057 shares of company stock worth $79,516,905 over the last 90 days. 10.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 135.8% during 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. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,046,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $363,537,000 after purchasing an additional 48,956 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,707,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,275,000 after purchasing an additional 32,804 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 959,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $235,466,000 after purchasing an additional 15,546 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Cloudflare by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 927,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $191,318,000 after purchasing an additional 69,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare reported Q3 revenue of $782.5 million, up 39.2% year over year and above analyst expectations. Adjusted EPS of $0.38 also beat consensus. Cloudflare Q3 results and guidance
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its full-year revenue projection to about $2.96 billion from prior guidance of $2.86–$2.87 billion. Its next-quarter revenue outlook was also stronger than analysts expected. Cloudflare raises full-year outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise adoption continued to expand: customers spending more than $100,000 annually grew 25% year over year. Management also cited record sales productivity and the company’s first “Act 4” revenue. Three takeaways for long-term investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Needham kept a Buy rating but lowered its price target to $365 from $380; Cantor Fitzgerald cut its target to $310 from $340 and maintained Neutral. The target reductions temper, but do not erase, the positive earnings signal. Needham price target
• Negative Sentiment: Despite rapid sales growth, gross margin fell, free cash flow grew more slowly than revenue, and the GAAP operating loss widened—potential concerns about profitability and the quality of growth. Cloudflare sales, margins and earnings reaction

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.