Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday after Capital One Financial upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $124.31, but opened at $133.62. Cloudflare shares last traded at $134.63, with a volume of 1,453,620 shares.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cloudflare from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $151.00 price objective (up previously from $112.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $135.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $142.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.16, for a total value of $372,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 185,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,020,008.96. The trade was a 1.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.84, for a total value of $5,785,719.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 492,492 shares of company stock worth $63,757,685 in the last 90 days. 12.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1,188.2% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 219 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Cloudflare during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its position in Cloudflare by 213.4% in the first quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 257 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in Cloudflare by 115.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Financial Private Client LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 38,100.0% during the first quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 381 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare Stock Up 6.5 %

The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $116.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.76. The firm has a market cap of $45.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -601.91 and a beta of 1.78.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $479.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $469.49 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 4.72%. Cloudflare’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Cloudflare Company Profile

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.