Oppenheimer Begins Coverage on Cloudflare (NYSE:NET)

Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Guggenheim upped their target price on Cloudflare from $57.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price target (up from $125.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $95.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $183.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on Cloudflare from $87.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.64.

Cloudflare Trading Up 0.3 %

NET opened at $117.89 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $136.61 and its 200-day moving average is $109.54. Cloudflare has a 52-week low of $66.24 and a 52-week high of $177.37. 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 $40.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -535.85 and a beta of 1.27.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 4.72%. Analysts expect that Cloudflare will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Janel Riley sold 4,327 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.60, for a total value of $725,205.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 74,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,519,384.80. This represents a 5.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.32, for a total transaction of $6,145,690.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 413,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,501,613.16. The trade was a 11.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 556,766 shares of company stock valued at $72,579,200 in the last three months. 12.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 4th quarter valued at $269,200,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter worth about $249,544,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Cloudflare by 82.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,257,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,098,000 after acquiring an additional 1,017,399 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cloudflare by 856.3% in the 4th quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 934,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,604,000 after acquiring an additional 836,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 292.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,078,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,178,000 after purchasing an additional 804,059 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cloudflare Company Profile

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.