Wall Street Zen Upgrades Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) to "Buy"

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Cloudflare from “hold” to “buy,” while the broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $330.59.
• Cloudflare reported quarterly EPS of $0.29, beating estimates of $0.27, while revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.06 million and exceeded forecasts.
• Insiders sold 458,839 shares worth approximately $138.2 million over the past three months, even as institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 82.68% of the company.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on NET. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $380.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $300.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $280.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cloudflare presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $330.59.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

Cloudflare stock opened at $295.48 on Friday. Cloudflare has a 52 week low of $158.83 and a 52 week high of $370.35. The company's 50-day moving average price is $319.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $696.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $664.66 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 3.88% and a negative net margin of 8.21%. The company's revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. Cloudflare has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.340-0.340 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.250-1.260 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Cloudflare will post 0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 69,775 shares in the company, valued at $24,301,934.75. This trade represents a 32.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.15, for a total value of $1,765,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 873,073 shares of the company's stock, valued at $308,325,729.95. This trade represents a 0.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 458,839 shares of company stock valued at $138,172,392. 10.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 31.2% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 164 shares of the company's stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. CX Institutional boosted its position in Cloudflare by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 133 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Wealth Architects LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 4.6% during the second quarter. Wealth Architects LLC now owns 1,022 shares of the company's stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 65.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 119 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP grew its stake in Cloudflare by 3.5% in the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,498 shares of the company's stock valued at $367,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc is a connectivity cloud company that provides services designed to help organizations make their websites, applications and networks more secure, reliable and faster. Its global network sits between users and the services they access, supporting content delivery, domain name system services, traffic optimization and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks and other online threats.

The company offers a range of application and network security products, including web application firewalls, bot management, application programming interface protection, zero-trust security and secure access services.

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