Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Cloudflare (NYSE:NET)

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $185.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC's target price suggests a potential upside of 21.85% from the company's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. DZ Bank lowered Cloudflare from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $145.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $87.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Baird R W lowered shares of Cloudflare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $95.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $136.28.

Cloudflare Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of NET traded down $4.55 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $151.83. The company had a trading volume of 3,652,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,999,010. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $130.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.08. The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Cloudflare has a 1-year low of $66.24 and a 1-year high of $177.37. The stock has a market cap of $52.11 billion, a PE ratio of -690.12 and a beta of 1.12.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.21). Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 4.72%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cloudflare will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

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 transaction of $1,648,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 252,869 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,790,303.10. This represents a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Douglas James Kramer sold 2,481 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 175,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,131,082.08. This represents a 1.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 594,036 shares of company stock valued at $72,407,434. Corporate insiders own 12.83% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NET. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 17.8% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 31,519 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,550,000 after acquiring an additional 4,756 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,620 shares of the company's stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 27,942 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,260,000 after purchasing an additional 4,230 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Cloudflare by 224.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,447 shares of the company's stock worth $203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 13.7% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 987 shares of the company's stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.