Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) gapped up before the market opened on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $110.00 to $115.00. The stock had previously closed at $141.52, but opened at $153.50. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Cloudflare shares last traded at $164.21, with a volume of 3,658,915 shares trading hands.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on NET. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Cloudflare from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price objective (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Cloudflare from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $95.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $140.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $92.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.48.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cloudflare

In related news, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 2,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.66, for a total value of $326,648.46. Following the sale, the insider now owns 175,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,131,082.08. The trade was a 1.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.59, for a total value of $5,007,386.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 192,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,370,199.43. This represents a 21.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 633,738 shares of company stock worth $69,632,506 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,834,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $390,130,000 after acquiring an additional 121,810 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in 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 valued at $138,516,000 after buying an additional 23,641 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,221,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,559,000 after buying an additional 63,945 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 893,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,283,000 after buying an additional 10,100 shares during the period. Finally, Peregrine Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 661,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,483 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -641.83 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50 day moving average is $117.55 and its 200-day moving average is $96.24.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.21). Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 5.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.18%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

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.