Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Sets New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Cloudflare's stock reached a new 52-week high of $211.75 after receiving a price target upgrade from Scotiabank, moving from $135 to $200.
• Multiple analysts have revised their price targets for Cloudflare, with estimates ranging from $170 to $250, indicating a mix of ratings from "sell" to "strong buy."
• Insider transactions included significant share sales by directors, with Carl Ledbetter and Michelle Zatlyn selling a combined total of over $7 million worth of stock in the past month.

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report)'s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $200.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. Cloudflare traded as high as $211.75 and last traded at $208.69, with a volume of 2220409 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $200.11.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on NET. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. DZ Bank reissued a "sell" rating and set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $151.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $145.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $186.88.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In other Cloudflare news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.85, for a total value of $2,997,750.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,043,073 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $208,458,139.05. This trade represents a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.68, for a total value of $4,889,225.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 6,390 shares in the company, valued at $1,218,445.20. The trade was a 80.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 688,062 shares of company stock valued at $121,498,887 over the last three months. 10.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Cloudflare by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,409,307 shares of the company's stock worth $3,812,942,000 after purchasing an additional 260,415 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Cloudflare by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,836,909 shares of the company's stock worth $3,475,011,000 after purchasing an additional 538,850 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position 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 worth $352,610,000 after purchasing an additional 786,063 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 34.5% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,037,420 shares of the company's stock valued at $342,287,000 after buying an additional 779,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,880,888 shares of the company's stock valued at $211,957,000 after buying an additional 31,745 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare Trading Up 4.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 5.14 and a current ratio of 5.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.33 billion, a PE ratio of -615.49 and a beta of 1.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $184.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $149.53.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.03. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 8.42% and a negative net margin of 6.22%. The firm had revenue of $512.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $501.58 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 27.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

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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