Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Price Target Raised to $380.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Key Points

• Needham raised Cloudflare’s price target to $380 from $280 and maintained a Buy rating, implying approximately 17.9% upside. Other analysts also lifted targets, while the broader consensus remains a Moderate Buy with a $287.93 average target.
• Cloudflare exceeded quarterly expectations: revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.1 million, while EPS of $0.29 topped the $0.27 consensus. Management also raised its full-year revenue outlook, citing growing demand for AI-related network and security services.
• Shares have surged but valuation and insider selling remain risks. Cloudflare opened at $322.25 near its 52-week high, carries a very elevated valuation, and insiders sold roughly $183.9 million of stock during the latest quarter under pre-arranged trading plans.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) had its price target hoisted by Needham & Company LLC from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 17.92% from the company's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on NET. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Scotiabank raised Cloudflare from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $300.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Cloudflare from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $350.00 target price on Cloudflare in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $287.93.

Cloudflare Trading Up 13.3%

NYSE:NET opened at $322.25 on Friday. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $255.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $218.26. Cloudflare has a one year low of $158.83 and a one year high of $322.49. The stock has a market cap of $113.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1,272.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 219.10 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.96.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.02. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 3.72% and a negative return on equity of 5.65%. The firm had revenue of $696.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $664.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cloudflare news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,080 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.98, for a total value of $7,506,418.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 47,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,148,001.50. This trade represents a 42.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,422 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.09, for a total transaction of $13,057,795.98. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 749,532 shares of company stock valued at $183,882,628 over the last quarter. Insiders own 10.66% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lingotto Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,626,000. Trek Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,793,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 1,984.7% in the 4th quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 197,710 shares of the company's stock worth $38,979,000 after purchasing an additional 188,226 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,639,661 shares of the company's stock worth $323,259,000 after purchasing an additional 336,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Cloudflare by 17.6% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,381,985 shares of the company's stock valued at $284,900,000 after purchasing an additional 206,506 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare beat second-quarter expectations. Revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.1 million, exceeding estimates of approximately $664.7 million. Adjusted earnings of $0.29 per share also topped the $0.27 consensus. Cloudflare Q2 results
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its full-year forecast above analyst expectations. Cloudflare now expects 2026 revenue of roughly $2.864 billion to $2.870 billion, up from its prior $2.805 billion-$2.813 billion range. Third-quarter guidance of $736 million-$737 million in revenue and $0.34 EPS also exceeded consensus estimates. Cloudflare raises outlook
• Positive Sentiment: AI-agent traffic is supporting demand. Cloudflare said businesses increasingly rely on its network to route and secure AI applications. New offerings, including the AEO Visibility Dashboard, Identity-Aware AI Gateway and Cloudflare OS, could broaden its enterprise opportunity. Market update on Cloudflare
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG Research raised its price target. BTIG increased its target from $314 to $382 and reiterated a Buy rating, adding to favorable Wall Street commentary after the earnings release. BTIG price-target update
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains mixed. The broader consensus is still favorable, but some firms maintain Hold or Sell ratings. Cloudflare’s high valuation and elevated volatility make the shares sensitive to changes in growth expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling could pressure sentiment. CEO Matthew Prince, CFO Thomas Seifert and director Carl Ledbetter reported sales totaling millions of dollars. The transactions were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans and therefore do not necessarily indicate deteriorating confidence, but they may encourage profit-taking. Cloudflare insider filing

About Cloudflare

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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