Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Given “Overweight” Rating at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $337.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $333.00.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on NET. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Tuesday. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cloudflare from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $350.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $382.00 to $413.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Twenty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $332.82.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

Shares of NET stock traded up $24.69 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $269.20. 9,412,453 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,206,512. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $318.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $249.77. Cloudflare has a 52-week low of $158.83 and a 52-week high of $370.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -395.88, a P/E/G ratio of 210.90 and a beta of 1.37.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $782.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $737.16 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 3.88% and a negative net margin of 8.21%. The business’s revenue was up 39.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Cloudflare will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In other news, CFO Thomas Seifert sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.59, for a total transaction of $3,744,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 104,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,444,367.22. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.29, for a total transaction of $11,494,614.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 69,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,301,934.75. This trade represents a 32.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 259,057 shares of company stock worth $79,516,905. Company insiders own 10.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cloudflare

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NET. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 135.8% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $906,758,000 after acquiring an additional 2,530,872 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 4.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,046,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $363,537,000 after buying an additional 48,956 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 2.0% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,707,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,275,000 after buying an additional 32,804 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 959,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $235,466,000 after buying an additional 15,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 927,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,318,000 after purchasing an additional 69,800 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue rose 39.2% year over year to $782.5 million, beating estimates, while adjusted EPS of $0.38 also topped forecasts. The company cited strong enterprise demand and growing adoption of its developer platform. Cloudflare Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates on Robust Enterprise Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare raised its 2026 outlook: full-year revenue guidance is about $3.0 billion and EPS guidance is $1.35, above consensus estimates. Fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $845 million–$846 million and EPS guidance of $0.43 also exceeded expectations. Why Cloudflare Stock Opened Higher Today
• Positive Sentiment: Further signs of AI-related momentum include Cloudflare’s first revenue from AI bot traffic and a developer base that doubled to 10 million. Analysts at Wolfe Research upgraded the shares to Outperform. Why Cloudflare Stock Opened Higher Today
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst actions were mixed: Piper Sandler reaffirmed Overweight and raised its target, while Scotiabank, Needham and Cantor Fitzgerald lowered targets; the latter firms retained positive or neutral ratings. Scotiabank rating update
• Negative Sentiment: Some profitability measures lagged growth: gross margin faced pressure, free cash flow grew more slowly than revenue, and the GAAP operating loss widened. Cloudflare’s high valuation may make the stock sensitive to any slowdown or disappointment. Cloudflare Sales Up 39%, Gross Margin Falls

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc provides cloud-based services that help businesses and other organizations protect, connect and improve the performance of websites, applications and networks. Its global network delivers services including content delivery, domain name system management, and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks and other cyber threats.

The company also offers web application security, bot management and Zero Trust services for securing access to applications and internal networks.