Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Trading 1.4% Higher – Should You Buy?

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) was up 1.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $150.69 and last traded at $146.98. Approximately 1,095,049 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 3,899,221 shares. The stock had previously closed at $144.92.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NET shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Cloudflare from $140.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer lowered Cloudflare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Cloudflare from $87.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Cloudflare from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $136.28.

Cloudflare Stock Down 2.9 %

The stock has a market cap of $48.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -639.73 and a beta of 1.12. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $132.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $104.71.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cloudflare

In related news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.90, for a total value of $5,861,769.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 10,762 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,204,267.80. This trade represents a 82.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.90, for a total value of $1,648,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 252,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,790,303.10. The trade was a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 533,278 shares of company stock worth $66,134,227 in the last 90 days. 12.83% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new position in Cloudflare in the fourth quarter worth $269,200,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth approximately $249,544,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Cloudflare by 82.0% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,257,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,017,399 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in Cloudflare by 856.3% in the fourth quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 934,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,604,000 after buying an additional 836,591 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 292.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,078,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,178,000 after acquiring an additional 804,059 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

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.