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

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald has raised its price target for Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) from $162.00 to $199.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.63% from its previous close, while maintaining a "neutral" rating.
• Other analysts have varied opinions, with JMP Securities raising their target price to $225.00 and KeyCorp to $235.00, while DZ Bank issued a "sell" rating with a target price of $170.00.
• Cloudflare reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.21, beating expectations, with revenue up 27.8% year-over-year, amounting to $512.32 million.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $162.00 to $199.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald's target price would suggest a potential downside of 0.63% from the company's previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on NET. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Cloudflare from $180.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Cloudflare from $210.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. DZ Bank reaffirmed a "sell" rating and set a $170.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Cloudflare from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $174.44.

Cloudflare Trading Down 3.6%

NET traded down $7.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $200.27. The company had a trading volume of 1,540,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,698,260. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $182.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.77. The company has a market cap of $69.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -867.54 and a beta of 1.85. Cloudflare has a 12-month low of $69.26 and a 12-month high of $210.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 3.20 and a current ratio of 3.20.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.03. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 6.31% and a negative net margin of 4.62%. The firm had revenue of $512.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $501.58 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 34,270 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.17, for a total value of $6,859,825.90. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 241,550 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,351,063.50. This trade represents a 12.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.58, for a total value of $9,669,038.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 381,213 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,364,295.54. This represents a 12.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 688,062 shares of company stock worth $121,498,887 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.89% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NET. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in Cloudflare by 856.3% in the 4th quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 934,286 shares of the company's stock valued at $100,604,000 after buying an additional 836,591 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Cloudflare by 292.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,078,921 shares of the company's stock valued at $116,178,000 after purchasing an additional 804,059 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Cloudflare by 33.5% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,129,030 shares of the company's stock valued at $352,610,000 after purchasing an additional 786,063 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Cloudflare in the first quarter valued at approximately $88,203,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Cloudflare by 34.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,037,420 shares of the company's stock valued at $342,287,000 after purchasing an additional 779,819 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company's stock.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc operates as a cloud services provider that delivers a range of services to businesses worldwide. The company provides an integrated cloud-based security solution to secure a range of combination of platforms, including public cloud, private cloud, on-premise, software-as-a-service applications, and IoT devices; and website and application security products comprising web application firewall, bot management, distributed denial of service, API gateways, SSL/TLS encryption, script management, security center, and rate limiting products.

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