Cloudflare, Inc. (NET) - What Are Analysts Saying About This Stock?

Key Points

• Analyst consensus is “Moderate Buy”: Of 33 analysts, 21 recommend buying and one recommends a strong buy, versus six holds and five sells. The average 12-month price target is $330.59, though recent ratings are mixed, including upgraded targets from Oppenheimer and TD Cowen and strong-sell downgrades from DZ Bank and Zacks Research.
• Cloudflare reported strong operating growth: Quarterly revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.06 million, exceeding estimates, while EPS of $0.29 topped the $0.27 consensus. The company guided for fiscal 2026 EPS of $1.25–$1.26.
• Valuation and execution are key risks: The stock trades at a rich valuation after substantial gains, while concerns include declining gross margins, workforce reductions and potentially overstated AI-related enthusiasm. Insiders sold $143.4 million of shares over the past 90 days, although most institutional investors continued increasing their holdings.

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirty-three research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, twenty-one have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $330.59.

NET has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $380.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $350.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Friday, August 7th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $355.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. DZ Bank lowered Cloudflare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cloudflare news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 5,000 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.40, for a total value of $1,522,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 868,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $264,241,421.20. This trade represents a 0.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.29, for a total value of $11,494,614.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 69,775 shares in the company, valued at $24,301,934.75. This trade represents a 32.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 476,339 shares of company stock valued at $143,439,267. 10.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 135.8% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company's stock valued at $906,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,530,872 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Cloudflare by 697.5% in the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 927,606 shares of the company's stock valued at $191,402,000 after buying an additional 811,297 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the second quarter valued at $75,595,000. USS Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 452.3% during the 1st quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 296,322 shares of the company's stock worth $61,156,000 after buying an additional 242,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,381,985 shares of the company's stock worth $284,900,000 after buying an additional 206,506 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud stocks are rebounding: Cloudflare is benefiting from a broader recovery in cloud-software shares, with investors especially favoring companies that secure and keep applications running. Cloudflare Climbs as Cloud Stocks Rebound
• Positive Sentiment: PHP security crisis highlights demand for Cloudflare: The company reported millions of attempted exploits after critical PHP vulnerabilities were disclosed. The heightened threat environment reinforces the need for Cloudflare’s web-security and protective services and has helped lift cybersecurity stocks. Cloudflare sees millions of exploit attempts after PHP disclosure
• Positive Sentiment: Growth outlook remains attractive to some investors: Brown Advisory cited accelerating growth at Cloudflare, while a bullish analyst view argued that AI-driven traffic, bot verification, and enterprise adoption could provide substantial long-term expansion opportunities. Brown Advisory Sees Accelerating Growth at Cloudflare
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation is a key risk: Cloudflare’s multiyear share-price gains have significantly outpaced its sales growth, leaving the stock valued at a rich sales premium. That can support momentum but makes the shares sensitive to any slowdown in growth or weaker guidance. Cloudflare Stock May Trade at a Rich Sales Premium
• Negative Sentiment: Execution concerns remain: Commentary has pointed to potentially misleading AI-agent enthusiasm, declining gross margins, and a reported workforce reduction, factors that could temper the bullish narrative if they pressure profitability or revenue quality. PHP Flaws Set Off Cyber Alarm

Cloudflare Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NET opened at $325.68 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $115.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -561.52, a P/E/G ratio of 259.07 and a beta of 1.65. Cloudflare has a twelve month low of $158.83 and a twelve month high of $370.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $318.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $267.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $696.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $664.66 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 8.21% and a negative return on equity of 3.88%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. Cloudflare has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.340-0.340 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.250-1.260 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc NYSE: NET provides cloud connectivity, security and performance services for websites, applications, corporate networks and other internet-connected resources. Its global network is designed to help organizations improve the reliability, speed and security of digital services while reducing the complexity of managing internet infrastructure.

The company's offerings include content delivery and authoritative domain name system services, distributed denial-of-service protection, web application and application programming interface security, bot management, and network security tools.

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