American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 779,819 Shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Cloudflare, Inc. by 34.5%, acquiring an additional 779,819 shares, bringing their total holdings to 3,037,420 shares valued at approximately $342 million.
• Several other institutional investors also expanded their positions, with GAMMA Investing LLC increasing its holdings by 86.8% during the same period.
• Cloudflare's recent quarterly earnings showed 27.8% year-over-year revenue growth, reporting $512.32 million, and beating analyst estimates of $501.58 million.

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 34.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,037,420 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 779,819 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.88% of Cloudflare worth $342,287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 86.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,093 shares of the company's stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 2,635 shares of the company's stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 21,402 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,412,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 47.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,930 shares of the company's stock valued at $639,000 after purchasing an additional 1,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 3,969 shares of the company's stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NET. Citigroup reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Monday, July 28th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $210.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $145.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $175.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $186.88.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In other Cloudflare news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.85, for a total transaction of $2,997,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,043,073 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $208,458,139.05. This represents a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.68, for a total transaction of $4,889,225.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 6,390 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 586,294 shares of company stock valued at $106,298,200 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.89% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

Shares of NET stock opened at $195.18 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $191.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $154.30. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.88 and a 52 week high of $219.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.02 billion, a PE ratio of -574.07 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a quick ratio of 5.14, a current ratio of 5.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63.

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