Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $123.93, but opened at $131.79. Cloudflare shares last traded at $129.88, with a volume of 1,500,578 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on NET. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Cloudflare from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $183.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Cloudflare from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $160.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on Cloudflare in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $135.64.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $41.80 billion, a PE ratio of -550.62 and a beta of 1.27. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $137.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.92.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.21). Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 4.72%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cloudflare

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,200,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 293,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,229,840. This represents a 3.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Janel Riley sold 4,327 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.60, for a total transaction of $725,205.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 74,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,519,384.80. This trade represents a 5.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 566,766 shares of company stock worth $73,779,200 in the last quarter. 12.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cloudflare

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hartline Investment Corp increased its holdings in Cloudflare by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 264,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,464,000 after purchasing an additional 3,957 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,157,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,656,000 after purchasing an additional 29,960 shares during the period. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Strategic Blueprint LLC purchased a new stake in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter worth $265,000. Finally, Clarendon Private LLC bought a new stake in Cloudflare during the 4th quarter valued at $293,000. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.