Zacks Research Upgrades Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) to Strong-Buy

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Guggenheim restated a “sell” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Cloudflare to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Cloudflare from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $136.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $258.59.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

NYSE:NET opened at $272.50 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The firm has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1,090.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 277.66 and a beta of 1.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $239.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $211.05. Cloudflare has a 1-year low of $158.83 and a 1-year high of $291.00.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 3.72% and a negative return on equity of 5.65%. The company had revenue of $639.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS. Cloudflare’s quarterly revenue was up 33.5% on a year-over-year basis. Cloudflare has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.190-1.200 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.270-0.270 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cloudflare will post 0.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.11, for a total value of $5,618,199.51. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 47,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,391,291.75. This trade represents a 35.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,383 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.28, for a total value of $12,953,268.24. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 564,903 shares of company stock worth $127,356,194 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 10.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HM Payson & Co. purchased a new position in Cloudflare in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. CX Institutional boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in shares of Cloudflare by 55.4% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 157 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% 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.