Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts give Cloudflare an average rating of "Moderate Buy" across 29 firms (2 sell, 8 hold, 18 buy, 1 strong buy) with a mean 12‑month price target of about $233.38.
• Recent company developments include a strategic partnership with GoDaddy, acceleration of full post‑quantum security to 2029, and strong Q4 results (revenue up ~33.6%), supporting the growth narrative around security, edge computing and AI inference.
• Insider selling has been notable: insiders sold 624,247 shares worth roughly $121.1M in the last 90 days (including sales by the CEO and CFO), which could create short‑term negative sentiment.

Shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $233.3846.

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. DZ Bank raised shares of Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $215.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $220.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th.

Key Cloudflare News

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare announced a strategic partnership with GoDaddy to integrate Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control and support verifiable bot identity standards, positioning Cloudflare as a platform for the emerging “agentic” web and expanding distribution for AI-related controls and monetization. Cloudflare and GoDaddy partner
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare accelerated its target for full post‑quantum security to 2029, signaling product leadership on crypto resilience that can reduce enterprise risk and support security product adoption. This strengthens the company’s differentiation for security‑sensitive customers. Post‑quantum security update
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and market commentary highlight Cloudflare’s edge‑computing positioning and strong top‑line momentum (Q4 revenue growth ~34% and improving free‑cash‑flow metrics), which supports a long‑term growth narrative around security, performance and AI inference at the edge.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent market write‑ups noted a short‑term outperformance versus peers (recent intraday gains reported in market coverage). These pieces reflect momentum interest but are not new company fundamentals. Market outperformance note
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Matthew Prince executed planned insider sales on April 6–8 totaling about 104,109 shares (~$22M) (plus a smaller 659‑share sale disclosed separately); filings say trades were done under a pre‑arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan. While the plan reduces the signal of opportunistic timing and Prince still holds a meaningful stake (~406,315 shares per filings), the sizable sales can create short‑term selling pressure and negative sentiment. SEC Form 4

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 41,557 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.04, for a total value of $7,689,707.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 85,452 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,812,038.08. This represents a 32.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.15, for a total transaction of $8,598,833.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,911 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,840.65. The trade was a 69.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 624,247 shares of company stock worth $121,102,467. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. HM Payson & Co. bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 693.3% in the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 119 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 130 shares of the company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 139 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

NET stock opened at $210.92 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a market capitalization of $74.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -727.27 and a beta of 1.87. Cloudflare has a 12 month low of $96.41 and a 12 month high of $260.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $194.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $202.49.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $614.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $591.67 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a negative return on equity of 7.24%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cloudflare will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cloudflare Company Profile

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.