Optas LLC Boosts Position in Cloudflare, Inc. $NET

Key Points

• Optas LLC increased its stake in Cloudflare by 1,138.7% in Q4, adding 14,063 shares to hold 15,298 shares valued at about $3.02 million.
• Cloudflare beat estimates with $0.28 EPS (vs. $0.27) and $614.51M revenue, up 33.6% year-over-year, but remains unprofitable with a negative net margin and negative P/E, while analysts hold a Moderate Buy consensus and $232.62 target.
• Insider activity shows notable selling — including CEO and CFO transactions — with 572,965 shares sold (~$111.6M) over the last 90 days, though insiders still own 10.89% of the company.

Optas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 1,138.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,298 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 14,063 shares during the quarter. Optas LLC's holdings in Cloudflare were worth $3,016,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 693.3% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 119 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 100.0% during the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 130 shares of the company's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 101.4% during the third quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 139 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NET opened at $204.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $72.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -705.61 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $197.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $200.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $100.25 and a 1 year high of $260.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cloudflare news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 659 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.62, for a total value of $147,365.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 406,315 shares in the company, valued at approximately $90,860,160.30. The trade was a 0.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.98, for a total value of $1,979,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 221,681 shares of the company's stock, valued at $43,888,404.38. The trade was a 4.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 572,965 shares of company stock worth $111,606,012. Company insiders own 10.89% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NET has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Cloudflare from $199.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research raised Cloudflare from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Cloudflare from $255.00 to $225.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. DZ Bank raised Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $215.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $224.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average 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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