Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Trading 6.5% Higher – Still a Buy?

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price rose 6.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $102.91 and last traded at $102.76. Approximately 1,055,138 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 3,167,211 shares. The stock had previously closed at $96.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on NET. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $90.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.88.

Cloudflare Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $35.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -395.23 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $87.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.07.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.03). The company had revenue of $430.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $423.65 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 5.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.18%. Equities research analysts forecast that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.05, for a total value of $1,170,750.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 281,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,963,504.15. This trade represents a 5.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.53, for a total transaction of $244,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 185,386 shares in the company, valued at $15,114,520.58. This represents a 1.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 546,194 shares of company stock worth $46,804,995 in the last 90 days. 12.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 595.0% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 278 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC increased 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 worth $25,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in Cloudflare by 73.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in Cloudflare during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Cloudflare by 1,202.9% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.