Jennison Associates LLC Buys 1,657,144 Shares of Cloudflare, Inc. $NET

Key Points

• Jennison Associates increased its Cloudflare stake by 802.6% in Q4, adding 1,657,144 shares to hold 1,863,612 shares (about 0.53% of the company) valued at roughly $367.4 million.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently—609,247 shares worth $118.9 million were sold in the last 90 days (including CFO Thomas Seifert and co‑founder Michelle Zatlyn), leaving insiders with 10.89% ownership.
• Cloudflare beat expectations with $614.5M revenue and $0.28 EPS for the quarter but remains unprofitable (negative net margin and P/E), has a $71.1B market cap, and carries a consensus analyst rating of Moderate Buy with a $232.62 target.

Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 802.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,863,612 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,657,144 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned 0.53% of Cloudflare worth $367,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter valued at about $138,660,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 322.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 65,182 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,987,000 after acquiring an additional 49,749 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 618,662 shares of the company's stock valued at $132,759,000 after acquiring an additional 5,939 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,639,661 shares of the company's stock valued at $323,259,000 after acquiring an additional 336,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 170,186 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,520,000 after acquiring an additional 28,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

Shares of NET stock opened at $202.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $71.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -696.17 and a beta of 1.87. The company's 50 day moving average is $199.64 and its 200 day moving average is $200.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 52-week low of $120.46 and a 52-week high of $260.00.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $614.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $591.67 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a negative return on equity of 7.24%. Cloudflare's revenue was up 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 41,557 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.04, for a total transaction of $7,689,707.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 85,452 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,812,038.08. This trade represents a 32.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,080 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.39, for a total transaction of $6,573,641.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 34,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,467,578.46. The trade was a 50.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 609,247 shares of company stock valued at $118,913,474 over the last ninety days. 10.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on NET shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $224.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Cloudflare from an "overweight" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $117.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Wolfe Research reissued a "peer perform" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cloudflare presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $232.62.

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc is a global web infrastructure and security company that provides a suite of services designed to improve the performance, reliability and security of internet properties. Its core offerings include a content delivery network (CDN), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, managed DNS, and a web application firewall (WAF). Cloudflare also provides tools for bot management, SSL/TLS, load balancing and rate limiting to help organizations maintain uptime and protect web applications from attack.

In addition to traditional edge and security services, Cloudflare has expanded into edge computing and developer platforms.

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