Raymond James Financial Inc. Grows Position in Cloudflare, Inc. $NET

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Cloudflare, Inc. by 129.7%, acquiring an additional 619,526 shares, bringing its total ownership to 1,097,235 shares valued at approximately $123.6 million.
• Several analysts raised their price targets for Cloudflare stock, with Citigroup setting a new target of $255.00, reflecting a positive sentiment toward the company's growth prospects.
• Insiders sold a significant number of shares, with a total of 509,640 shares valued at $94.3 million being sold over the last three months, indicating active trading among company executives.

Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its position in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) by 129.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,097,235 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 619,526 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.32% of Cloudflare worth $123,647,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NET. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cloudflare by 856.3% in the fourth quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 934,286 shares of the company's stock valued at $100,604,000 after acquiring an additional 836,591 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Cloudflare in the first quarter valued at approximately $88,203,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Cloudflare by 34.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,037,420 shares of the company's stock valued at $342,287,000 after acquiring an additional 779,819 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cloudflare by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,836,909 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,475,011,000 after acquiring an additional 538,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alfreton Capital LLP bought a new stake in Cloudflare in the first quarter valued at approximately $48,457,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Cloudflare from $162.00 to $199.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Susquehanna cut their price target on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Cloudflare from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Cloudflare from $175.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Thursday, June 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $191.28.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 59,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.30, for a total value of $11,843,739.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 241,550 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,382,465. This represents a 19.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 34,270 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were 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. The trade was a 12.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 630,323 shares of company stock valued at $118,661,105 in the last 90 days. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cloudflare Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NET traded up $3.1630 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $195.9330. The stock had a trading volume of 1,416,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,910,497. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.88 and a 12 month high of $219.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $193.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.93. The company has a current ratio of 5.14, a quick ratio of 5.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63. The company has a market capitalization of $68.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -576.27 and a beta of 1.84.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.03. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 8.42% and a negative net margin of 6.22%.The company had revenue of $512.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $501.58 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. Cloudflare's quarterly revenue was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Cloudflare has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.850-0.860 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 0.230-0.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.