Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Sets New 12-Month High on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock traded as high as $305.00 and last traded at $291.7080, with a volume of 3953788 shares. The stock had previously closed at $301.33.

The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.02. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 3.99% and a negative net margin of 8.21%.The business had revenue of $696.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $664.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Trending Headlines about Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results beat expectations. Revenue rose 35.9% year over year to $696.1 million, exceeding the approximately $664.7 million consensus estimate. Adjusted EPS was $0.29 versus expectations of $0.27, supported by large-customer additions, Workers adoption and improved execution. Cloudflare Q2 earnings report
• Positive Sentiment: Cloudflare raised its forecast. Third-quarter guidance calls for approximately $736 million-$737 million in revenue and $0.34 EPS, above analyst estimates. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance was lifted to roughly $2.864 billion-$2.870 billion, while EPS guidance increased to $1.25-$1.26. Management cited resilient AI-agent demand across its network. Reuters outlook report
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts responded with higher targets. Citizens JMP raised its target to $394, while Oppenheimer and Needham increased targets to $380. BTIG, RBC, Piper Sandler and Truist also raised targets and maintained bullish ratings, signaling confidence in Cloudflare’s AI growth opportunity.
• Positive Sentiment: New AI products add potential growth avenues. Cloudflare launched Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted browser designed for AI agents, and an AEO Visibility Dashboard that helps brands track recommendations from AI assistants. TechCrunch Kitesurf report
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation and volatility remain elevated. The rally has pushed Cloudflare near record levels, leaving the stock dependent on continued high growth, margin improvement and successful AI monetization.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling is a modest sentiment risk. CEO Matthew Prince, CFO Thomas Seifert and director Carl Ledbetter sold shares under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans. These transactions may concern investors but do not necessarily indicate weakening business fundamentals.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NET has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $350.00 price target on Cloudflare in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Friday, July 17th. Benchmark cut shares of Cloudflare to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Cloudflare from $300.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on Cloudflare from $300.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cloudflare currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $311.48.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In related news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,422 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.09, for a total transaction of $13,057,795.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.98, for a total value of $7,506,418.40. Following the transaction, the insider owned 47,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,148,001.50. This represents a 42.52% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 749,532 shares of company stock worth $183,882,628. 10.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. HM Payson & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. CX Institutional raised its position in shares of Cloudflare by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 133 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Cloudflare in the second quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Cloudflare in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $257.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $218.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -518.96, a P/E/G ratio of 212.72 and a beta of 1.65.

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.