Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Raised to “Outperform” at CICC Research

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by equities researchers at CICC Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $154.00 price objective on the stock. CICC Research’s price target points to a potential upside of 8.16% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Capital One Financial raised shares of Cloudflare from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $135.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Cloudflare from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $111.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cloudflare from $144.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $143.04.

Cloudflare Trading Up 7.6%

Shares of NYSE:NET traded up $10.04 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $142.38. 3,157,250 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,106,771. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $116.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.96. Cloudflare has a 12 month low of $66.24 and a 12 month high of $177.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -647.12 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.37.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $479.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $469.49 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a negative return on equity of 5.52%. The business’s revenue was up 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. Analysts predict that Cloudflare will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In other news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.39, for a total value of $7,511,341.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 413,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,279,290.07. This represents a 11.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.16, for a total value of $372,480.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 185,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,020,008.96. This trade represents a 1.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 492,492 shares of company stock valued at $63,757,685 in the last ninety days. 12.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cloudflare

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Cloudflare by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 585 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new position in Cloudflare in the fourth quarter worth approximately $304,000. Grandview Asset Management LLC raised its position in Cloudflare by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC now owns 11,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Cloudflare by 38.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,781 shares of the company’s stock valued at $515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Cloudflare by 28.3% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $679,000 after acquiring an additional 1,390 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.