WINTON GROUP Ltd Buys New Stake in Cloudflare, Inc. $NET

Key Points

• WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) in Q3—13,972 shares valued at about $2.998 million, according to its latest 13F filing.
• Insiders have been net sellers: company insiders sold 551,851 shares worth roughly $102.7 million in the past 90 days, including large reductions by Michelle Zatlyn and CEO Matthew Prince.
• Cloudflare beat recent quarterly estimates, reporting $0.28 EPS vs. $0.27 expected and revenue of $614.5 million (up 33.6% year-over-year), while analysts maintain a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target around $230.70.

WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 13,972 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,998,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the third quarter worth about $138,660,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Cloudflare by 322.4% during 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 in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in Cloudflare by 1.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Cloudflare in the 2nd quarter valued at about $87,868,000. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Cloudflare by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 43,878 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,416,000 after acquiring an additional 9,527 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company's stock.

Cloudflare Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of Cloudflare stock opened at $207.69 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $184.48 and a 200 day moving average of $202.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -716.14 and a beta of 1.98. Cloudflare, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $89.42 and a fifty-two week high of $260.00.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NET has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cloudflare from $260.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays increased their price target on Cloudflare from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Cloudflare from $255.00 to $225.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. BTIG Research upped their target price on Cloudflare from $199.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Cloudflare from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $230.70.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In other Cloudflare news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.50, for a total value of $4,858,969.50. Following the transaction, the insider owned 34,514 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,540,403. This represents a 42.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.78, for a total transaction of $9,103,291.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,911 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,981,473.58. This trade represents a 69.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 551,851 shares of company stock worth $102,673,182 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.89% of the company's stock.

About Cloudflare

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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