Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $107.68, but opened at $114.50. Cloudflare shares last traded at $114.48, with a volume of 1,008,140 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NET has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Cloudflare from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $92.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Cloudflare from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $77.00 to $140.00 in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Mizuho raised their target price on Cloudflare from $102.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.37.

Cloudflare Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.09. The company has a market cap of $39.37 billion, a PE ratio of -441.27 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 3.37.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 5.97% and a negative return on equity of 7.18%. The company had revenue of $430.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $423.65 million. Research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In related news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.95, for a total transaction of $4,921,476.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 10,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,010,995.95. This trade represents a 82.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Michelle Zatlyn sold 64,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.60, for a total value of $5,230,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 192,177 shares in the company, valued at $15,681,643.20. The trade was a 25.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 614,592 shares of company stock valued at $60,146,600 in the last three months. 12.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NET. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 121.3% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Cloudflare by 73.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Cloudflare during the third quarter worth about $38,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in Cloudflare by 44.9% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. 82.68% of the stock is 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.