Cloudflare, Inc. $NET Stock: Phoenix Financial Ltd. Cuts Holdings

Key Points

• Phoenix Financial cut its Cloudflare stake by 63.9% in the third quarter, selling 515,992 shares; it retained 291,572 shares valued at about $101.3 million.
• Cloudflare beat quarterly estimates, reporting EPS of $0.38 versus $0.34 expected and revenue of $782.5 million, up 39.2% year over year.
• Shares fell 3.9% to $306.07. Analysts’ consensus rating was “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $338.48.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. cut its position in shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 63.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 291,572 shares of the company's stock after selling 515,992 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. owned 0.08% of Cloudflare worth $101,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NET. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Cloudflare by 135.8% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company's stock worth $906,758,000 after acquiring an additional 2,530,872 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,707,256 shares of the company's stock valued at $352,275,000 after acquiring an additional 32,804 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,046,812 shares of the company's stock valued at $363,537,000 after acquiring an additional 48,956 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 959,987 shares of the company's stock valued at $235,466,000 after acquiring an additional 15,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 927,200 shares of the company's stock worth $191,318,000 after purchasing an additional 69,800 shares during the period. 82.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.22, for a total transaction of $1,561,100.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 878,073 shares in the company, valued at $274,151,952.06. The trade was a 0.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas Seifert sold 12,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.59, for a total transaction of $3,744,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 104,958 shares in the company, valued at $31,444,367.22. This trade represents a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 256,537 shares of company stock worth $78,750,901 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 10.66% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare News Roundup

Investors following NET have been watching these news items:

• Positive Sentiment: An analyst upgrade recently supported gains in NET shares, adding to a broadly favorable view of the company’s prospects. Cloudflare Stock Jumps 2.8% After Analyst Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent coverage compares NET with Paycom as a potential value investment, but the available article details do not establish which stock the analysis favors. PAYC or NET: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?
• Negative Sentiment: NET fell despite the Gartner recognition, retreating from intraday highs as selling pressure persisted. That divergence suggests investors may be taking profits or weighing the stock’s valuation and near-term expectations against its growth story. Cloudflare Stock Drops Despite Major Gartner Recognition

Cloudflare Stock Down 3.9%

Shares of NYSE NET traded down $12.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $306.07. The company had a trading volume of 4,165,073 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,306,499. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.03, a quick ratio of 3.80 and a current ratio of 3.80. The company has a market capitalization of $109.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -450.10, a PEG ratio of 183.47 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $320.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $252.92. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 12-month low of $158.83 and a 12-month high of $370.35.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.04. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 8.75% and a negative return on equity of 6.05%. The firm had revenue of $782.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $737.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 39.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cloudflare, Inc. will post 0.04 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NET shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Cloudflare from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 6th. Citigroup restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, August 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $420.00 target price on Cloudflare and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, TD Cowen cut Cloudflare from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Twenty-six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cloudflare presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $338.48.

Cloudflare Profile

Cloudflare, Inc. provides cloud-based services that help businesses and other organizations protect, connect and improve the performance of websites, applications and networks. Its global network delivers services including content delivery, domain name system management, and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks and other cyber threats. The company also offers web application security, bot management and Zero Trust services for securing access to applications and internal networks.

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