Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Issues Q3 2026 Earnings Guidance

Key Points

• Cloudflare issued above-consensus Q3 2026 guidance: EPS is projected at $0.34 versus the $0.26 consensus estimate, while revenue guidance of $736 million–$737 million exceeds the $722.4 million consensus.
• Shares fell 3.3% to $283.33 despite the strong outlook. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, but the $265.27 average price target and elevated valuation suggest expectations are high.
• Insider selling may weigh on sentiment: CEO Matthew Prince sold 33,631 shares for approximately $10.0 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, while insiders sold roughly $166 million of stock over the past 90 days.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) issued an update on its third quarter 2026 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 0.340-0.340 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 0.260. The company issued revenue guidance of $736.0 million-$737.0 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $722.4 million.

Cloudflare Trading Down 3.3%

NYSE:NET traded down $9.63 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $283.33. The company had a trading volume of 5,190,010 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,302,411. Cloudflare has a fifty-two week low of $158.83 and a fifty-two week high of $305.00. The business's fifty day moving average is $254.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $217.56. 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 firm has a market cap of $100.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,133.31, a P/E/G ratio of 225.36 and a beta of 1.65.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $639.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $620.83 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.65% and a negative net margin of 3.72%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.16 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NET has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. New Street Research reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $136.00 price target on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Benchmark cut shares of Cloudflare to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $265.27.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In other Cloudflare news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 33,631 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.10, for a total transaction of $9,958,139.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director John Graham-Cumming sold 2,520 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.28, for a total value of $623,145.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 494,909 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $122,381,097.52. This trade represents a 0.51% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 689,532 shares of company stock valued at $165,956,228. 10.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Cloudflare News

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New AEO dashboard expands Cloudflare’s AI opportunity. The company launched an Answer Engine Optimization Visibility Dashboard that shows whether AI assistants recommend a brand, giving businesses a new way to measure and improve AI-driven discovery. Cloudflare Adds AEO Visibility Dashboard
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare is adding AI security and workspace products. Identity-Aware AI Gateway enables companies to track employee and AI-agent usage, manage spending and flag risky content. Cloudflare OS, an open-source AI workspace running on its network, could further support enterprise adoption and monetization. Cloudflare Gives Companies Full Visibility to Audit and Analyze AI Use Cloudflare OS Is the First AI Workspace
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare remains an investor-preferred AI infrastructure alternative. A 24/7 Wall St. article highlighted Cloudflare alongside CoreWeave and Snowflake as potential destinations for investors taking profits in fast-rising Nebius shares, providing a favorable but indirect endorsement. Nebius Is Still Up 136 Percent This Year
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings are the key near-term catalyst. Investors are looking for accelerating second-quarter revenue growth, stronger margins, AI demand and higher full-year guidance. Jefferies expects a possible outlook increase, while its Hold rating indicates that expectations are already elevated. Cloudflare Poised for Second Quarter Revenue Acceleration
• Negative Sentiment: CEO selling is a notable sentiment headwind. CEO Matthew Prince sold approximately 157,000 shares worth about $46 million from August 3–5. The transactions were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, reducing their predictive value, but the scale may encourage profit-taking concerns. SEC Insider Filing
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation increases the risk of disappointment. With NET near its annual high and trading at extreme earnings and growth multiples, the company may need to materially exceed expectations for the shares to advance. A results beat that merely matches consensus could still trigger selling.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 2nd quarter worth about $424,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter worth about $160,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cloudflare by 162.4% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 265 shares of the company's stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Greenline Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter worth about $168,000. Finally, AlphaCentric Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $103,000. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

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.

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