Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wolfe Research

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wolfe Research from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cloudflare from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird set a $330.00 target price on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Friday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $380.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Cloudflare from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Cloudflare from $405.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Twenty-six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $332.82.

Cloudflare Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NET traded up $24.69 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $269.20. The stock had a trading volume of 9,412,453 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,206,512. The company has a market cap of $95.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -395.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 210.90 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $318.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $249.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Cloudflare has a 1 year low of $158.83 and a 1 year high of $370.35.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $782.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $737.16 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 8.21% and a negative return on equity of 3.88%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. Research analysts expect that Cloudflare will post 0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cloudflare news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.22, for a total value of $1,561,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 878,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $274,151,952.06. This represents a 0.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.43, for a total value of $9,156,022.29. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 69,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,357,678.25. This represents a 32.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 259,057 shares of company stock valued at $79,516,905 over the last quarter. 10.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NET. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 135.8% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $906,758,000 after acquiring an additional 2,530,872 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 2nd quarter valued at about $75,595,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 583.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 241,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,805,000 after purchasing an additional 206,032 shares during the period. Styrax Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 1st quarter worth approximately $41,268,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 837.5% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 208,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,044,000 after purchasing an additional 185,906 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue rose 39.2% year over year to $782.5 million, beating estimates, while adjusted EPS of $0.38 also topped forecasts. The company cited strong enterprise demand and growing adoption of its developer platform. Cloudflare Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates on Robust Enterprise Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare raised its 2026 outlook: full-year revenue guidance is about $3.0 billion and EPS guidance is $1.35, above consensus estimates. Fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $845 million–$846 million and EPS guidance of $0.43 also exceeded expectations. Why Cloudflare Stock Opened Higher Today
• Positive Sentiment: Further signs of AI-related momentum include Cloudflare’s first revenue from AI bot traffic and a developer base that doubled to 10 million. Analysts at Wolfe Research upgraded the shares to Outperform. Why Cloudflare Stock Opened Higher Today
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst actions were mixed: Piper Sandler reaffirmed Overweight and raised its target, while Scotiabank, Needham and Cantor Fitzgerald lowered targets; the latter firms retained positive or neutral ratings. Scotiabank rating update
• Negative Sentiment: Some profitability measures lagged growth: gross margin faced pressure, free cash flow grew more slowly than revenue, and the GAAP operating loss widened. Cloudflare’s high valuation may make the stock sensitive to any slowdown or disappointment. Cloudflare Sales Up 39%, Gross Margin Falls

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc provides cloud-based services that help businesses and other organizations protect, connect and improve the performance of websites, applications and networks. Its global network delivers services including content delivery, domain name system management, and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks and other cyber threats.

The company also offers web application security, bot management and Zero Trust services for securing access to applications and internal networks.