Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Rating Increased to Buy at DZ Bank

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by stock analysts at DZ Bank from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $95.00 target price on the stock. DZ Bank’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 31.12% from the stock’s current price.

NET has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (down from $110.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Bank of America increased their price target on Cloudflare from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Cloudflare from $88.00 to $76.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Cloudflare from $95.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.48.

Cloudflare Price Performance

NYSE:NET opened at $72.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.46 billion, a PE ratio of -136.70 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 3.51, a current ratio of 3.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $92.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.85. Cloudflare has a 52 week low of $45.47 and a 52 week high of $116.00.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $362.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $352.70 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 12.78% and a negative net margin of 13.10%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cloudflare will post -0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In other Cloudflare news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 44,220 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.16, for a total transaction of $4,429,075.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,363,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $136,524,690.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 50,000 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.11, for a total transaction of $5,505,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 366,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,351,461.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 44,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.16, for a total value of $4,429,075.20. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,363,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $136,524,690.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,141,153 shares of company stock worth $108,765,387. Company insiders own 12.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 595.0% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Cloudflare during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Cloudflare in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.