Merit Financial Group LLC Invests $277,000 in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,458 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NET. Choreo LLC grew its stake in Cloudflare by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,766 shares of the company's stock worth $519,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Cloudflare by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 4,960 shares of the company's stock worth $534,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new position in Cloudflare during the 4th quarter worth $237,000. Sovran Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 4th quarter worth about $231,000. Finally, Certuity LLC boosted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 2,880 shares of the company's stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NET has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $148.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Cloudflare in a research report on Friday, June 6th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Cloudflare from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Mizuho raised Cloudflare from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $135.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $145.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cloudflare

In other news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.32, for a total transaction of $6,145,690.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 413,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,501,613.16. This represents a 11.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,640 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total value of $2,750,915.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 413,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,355,080.77. This trade represents a 5.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,985 shares of company stock valued at $93,352,423 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 10.89% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

NET traded up $0.88 on Friday, hitting $171.69. 6,251,147 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,159,642. The company has a 50 day moving average of $139.61 and a 200-day moving average of $129.85. The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.51 billion, a PE ratio of -780.40 and a beta of 1.84. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.26 and a 12-month high of $181.81.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $479.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $469.49 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a negative return on equity of 5.52%. The firm's revenue was up 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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.