Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. Sells 78,390 Shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)

Key Points

• Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. reduced its stake in Cloudflare, Inc. by 9.7% in Q1, now holding 729,812 shares valued at approximately $82.24 million.
• Analysts have mixed views on Cloudflare, with ratings ranging from strong buy to sell, and a consensus price target of $159.92.
• Insider trading activity included sales by CFO Thomas J. Seifert and CEO Matthew Prince, indicating a decrease in their positions in the company.

Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lowered its holdings in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 9.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 729,812 shares of the company's stock after selling 78,390 shares during the period. Cloudflare makes up 1.0% of Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. owned about 0.21% of Cloudflare worth $82,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NET. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 86.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,093 shares of the company's stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 122,171 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,155,000 after buying an additional 3,989 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,896 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 34,270 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.17, for a total value of $6,859,825.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 241,550 shares of the company's stock, valued at $48,351,063.50. This represents a 12.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 59,130 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.30, for a total transaction of $11,843,739.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 241,550 shares in the company, valued at $48,382,465. The trade was a 19.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 691,062 shares of company stock valued at $121,871,367 over the last 90 days. 10.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cloudflare Trading Up 1.5%

NYSE NET traded up $2.92 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $202.35. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,542,538 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,686,655. Cloudflare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.26 and a twelve month high of $203.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -879.83 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a quick ratio of 3.20, a current ratio of 3.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $181.77 and a 200 day moving average of $147.40.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.01). Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 6.31% and a negative net margin of 4.62%. The company had revenue of $479.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $469.49 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NET. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, June 16th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Capital One Financial upgraded shares of Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. CICC Research raised shares of Cloudflare from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $154.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $155.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $161.72.

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.