Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Reaches New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $142.88 and last traded at $142.75, with a volume of 1047577 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $140.14.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on NET shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 target price (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Cloudflare from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Cloudflare from $99.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho lifted their price target on Cloudflare from $102.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Cloudflare from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $77.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.32.

Cloudflare Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $115.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $95.58. The company has a market capitalization of $49.33 billion, a PE ratio of -552.54 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.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 5.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.18%. The firm had revenue of $430.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $423.65 million. On average, equities analysts predict that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.06, for a total transaction of $4,665,319.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 192,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,115,283.62. This represents a 21.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.75, for a total value of $3,172,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 172,959 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,403,676.25. This trade represents a 12.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 616,257 shares of company stock valued at $67,256,408 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.83% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NET. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,834,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $390,130,000 after purchasing an additional 121,810 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,286,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,516,000 after acquiring an additional 23,641 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cloudflare by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,157,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,656,000 after acquiring an additional 29,960 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 893,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,283,000 after purchasing an additional 10,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peregrine Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cloudflare by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 661,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,483 shares during the period. 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.