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

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $123.93, but opened at $131.79. Cloudflare shares last traded at $129.88, with a volume of 1,500,578 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $165.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $183.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Cloudflare from $136.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Cloudflare from $160.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Cloudflare from $95.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cloudflare has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $135.64.

Cloudflare Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 3.37. The firm has a market cap of $43.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -577.86 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50-day moving average is $137.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.56.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cloudflare

In related news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of Cloudflare stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 413,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,501,613.16. The trade was a 11.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thomas J. Seifert sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,200,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,229,840. This represents a 3.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 566,766 shares of company stock valued at $73,779,200. Corporate insiders own 12.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cloudflare

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

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.