Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Baird R W

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was downgraded by equities researchers at Baird R W from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on NET. UBS Group upped their target price on Cloudflare from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Citigroup raised Cloudflare from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $95.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $110.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on Cloudflare from $87.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.32.

Cloudflare Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NET opened at $140.10 on Monday. Cloudflare has a one year low of $66.24 and a one year high of $142.41. The stock has a market cap of $48.08 billion, a PE ratio of -538.83 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $115.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.58. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 7.18% and a negative net margin of 5.97%. The firm had revenue of $430.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $423.65 million. On average, analysts forecast that Cloudflare will post -0.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 252,869 shares in the company, valued at $27,790,303.10. This represents a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,640 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly 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 have sold 616,257 shares of company stock valued at $67,256,408 in the last ninety days. 12.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hartline Investment Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 260,379 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,062,000 after acquiring an additional 18,426 shares during the period. WIM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Ltd purchased a new stake in Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,588,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Cloudflare by 2.7% in 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 last quarter. National Pension Service raised its stake in Cloudflare by 0.9% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 471,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,174,000 after purchasing an additional 4,062 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its holdings in Cloudflare by 20.8% during the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 36,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,973,000 after purchasing an additional 6,326 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently 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.