Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Trading Up 6.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) shares traded up 6.8% during trading on Tuesday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $120.00 to $140.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Cloudflare traded as high as $134.42 and last traded at $135.09. 1,596,347 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 2,648,176 shares. The stock had previously closed at $126.47.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $102.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Cloudflare from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas began coverage on Cloudflare in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Cloudflare from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $136.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.72.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Maria S. Eitel sold 6,875 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.00, for a total value of $605,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $521,576. This represents a 53.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 3,000 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.60, for a total transaction of $265,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 185,386 shares in the company, valued at $16,425,199.60. The trade was a 1.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 641,132 shares of company stock valued at $69,429,058 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cloudflare

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 121.3% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Cloudflare by 73.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 345 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 44.9% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Cloudflare by 59.0% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 585 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $46.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -524.77 and a beta of 1.10. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $113.05 and a 200 day moving average of $93.88.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 7.18% and a negative net margin of 5.97%. The company had revenue of $430.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $423.65 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS 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.