Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on the stock from $183.00 to $161.00. The stock had previously closed at $119.40, but opened at $115.49. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Cloudflare shares last traded at $114.14, with a volume of 757,049 shares changing hands.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Cloudflare from $153.00 to $131.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. 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. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $160.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Cloudflare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.04, for a total transaction of $7,597,775.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 413,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,961,421.52. This trade represents a 11.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.72, for a total transaction of $1,690,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 252,869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,503,393.68. This trade represents a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 571,766 shares of company stock worth $73,804,307 over the last 90 days. 12.83% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Quarry LP increased its holdings in Cloudflare by 38.6% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Cloudflare in the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Cloudflare by 1,988.5% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 549 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare Trading Up 1.9 %

The company has a market capitalization of $39.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -526.50 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $136.45 and a 200 day moving average of $108.31.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.03) 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.