Optas LLC Reduces Stock Position in Cloudflare, Inc. $NET

Optas LLC cut its stake in Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) by 48.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,853 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,445 shares during the period. Optas LLC’s holdings in Cloudflare were worth $1,620,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Cloudflare by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,407,646 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,389,167,000 after purchasing an additional 90,397 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cloudflare by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,018,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,184,044,000 after purchasing an additional 241,981 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Cloudflare by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,019,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $792,377,000 after purchasing an additional 63,198 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Cloudflare by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,964,733 shares of the company’s stock valued at $850,792,000 after buying an additional 49,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cloudflare during the 4th quarter valued at $718,316,000. 82.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Cloudflare stock opened at $242.14 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $225.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.59 billion, a PE ratio of -968.56, a P/E/G ratio of 248.07 and a beta of 1.67. Cloudflare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $158.83 and a 1-year high of $276.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.65% and a negative net margin of 3.72%.The company had revenue of $639.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $620.83 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS. Cloudflare’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Cloudflare has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.190-1.200 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.270-0.270 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post 0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.11, for a total transaction of $5,618,199.51. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 47,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,391,291.75. The trade was a 35.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.30, for a total value of $11,749,731.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 566,245 shares of company stock valued at $121,343,833. 10.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NET has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. New Street Research reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, June 15th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.35.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc is a global web infrastructure and security company that provides a suite of services designed to improve the performance, reliability and security of internet properties. Its core offerings include a content delivery network (CDN), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, managed DNS, and a web application firewall (WAF). Cloudflare also provides tools for bot management, SSL/TLS, load balancing and rate limiting to help organizations maintain uptime and protect web applications from attack.

In addition to traditional edge and security services, Cloudflare has expanded into edge computing and developer platforms.