Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Stock Lifted to “Outperform” by Wolfe Research

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wolfe Research from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports.

NET has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Monday, August 31st. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Craig Hallum raised shares of Cloudflare to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $337.00 price objective (up from $333.00) on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Friday. Twenty-six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.75.

Cloudflare Stock Up 11.4%

NYSE NET traded up $27.90 during trading on Friday, hitting $272.41. The stock had a trading volume of 4,786,839 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,050,470. The company has a market capitalization of $96.29 billion, a PE ratio of -469.37, a P/E/G ratio of 206.44 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $319.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $249.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. Cloudflare has a 12 month low of $158.83 and a 12 month high of $370.35.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.04. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 8.21% and a negative return on equity of 3.88%. The company had revenue of $782.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $737.16 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 39.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cloudflare will post 0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cloudflare

In related news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 33,003 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.43, for a total value of $9,156,022.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 69,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,357,678.25. This trade represents a 32.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Thomas Seifert sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.59, for a total transaction of $3,744,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 104,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,444,367.22. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 259,057 shares of company stock valued at $79,516,905. 10.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 135.8% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,394,484 shares of the company’s stock valued at $906,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,530,872 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,046,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $363,537,000 after buying an additional 48,956 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,707,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $352,275,000 after buying an additional 32,804 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 959,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $235,466,000 after buying an additional 15,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Cloudflare by 8.1% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 927,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $191,318,000 after buying an additional 69,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Cloudflare News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue rose 39.2% year over year to $782.5 million, above the roughly $737 million consensus, while adjusted EPS of $0.38 beat the $0.34 estimate. Cloudflare delivers strong Q3 numbers
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its fourth-quarter 2026 outlook to EPS of $0.43 and revenue of $845–$846 million, versus consensus estimates of $0.31 and $797.9 million. Its FY 2026 guidance also moved above expectations: EPS of $1.35 versus $1.02 and revenue of about $3.0 billion versus $2.9 billion. Cloudflare raises full-year guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise momentum adds support to the growth outlook: customers spending more than $100,000 annually increased 25% year over year. Piper Sandler reaffirmed its Overweight rating and raised its price target to $337 from $333.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views were mixed. Needham lowered its price target to $365 while keeping a Buy rating, and Cantor Fitzgerald cut its target to $310 and maintained Neutral.
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the growth and outlook, reports noted that gross margin declined, free cash flow grew more slowly than revenue, and the GAAP operating loss widened—potential concerns about profitability as Cloudflare scales. Cloudflare sales rise, but margins face pressure

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc provides cloud-based services that help businesses and other organizations protect, connect and improve the performance of websites, applications and networks. Its global network delivers services including content delivery, domain name system management, and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks and other cyber threats.

The company also offers web application security, bot management and Zero Trust services for securing access to applications and internal networks.