Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Shares Down 5.5% – Here’s What Happened

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)’s stock price was down 5.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $194.16 and last traded at $194.5510. Approximately 2,347,362 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 3,712,588 shares. The stock had previously closed at $205.95.

Key Headlines Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Viral AI agent (“Clawdbot”) running on Cloudflare infrastructure rekindled investor excitement about Cloudflare’s platform for hosting and routing AI agents, sparking a sizeable premarket rally and heavy media attention. Cloudflare surges as viral AI agent buzz lifts expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage frames AI agents and edge computing as a structural growth opportunity for Cloudflare, arguing the company’s edge network and developer tools make it well‑positioned to capture AI inference and agent workloads. Cloudflare (NET) Stock: Why AI Agents Are Driving This Rally
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators point to improving fundamentals — accelerating revenue, recent earnings beats, partnerships and more optimistic sell‑side outlooks — as justification for a higher multiple and medium‑term growth thesis. What’s Fueling The Growth For Cloudflare Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Unusual bullish options activity—about 13,069 call contracts traded (roughly 43% above typical daily call volume)—indicates some traders were positioning for further upside during the viral-news window.
• Neutral Sentiment: Some brokers are conflicted: while a portion of the street is upgrading expectations on AI-driven adoption, others caution valuations and execution risks mean opinions remain mixed. Analysts Conflicted on These Technology Names: CoreWeave (CRWV) and Cloudflare (NET)
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentators warn the price jump may be driven by social‑media momentum rather than durable fundamentals; note that recent estimate revisions may not sustain further immediate upside. Cloudflare (NET) Moves 9.2% Higher: Will This Strength Last?
• Negative Sentiment: After the spike in attention and volume, intraday profit‑taking and rotation out of high‑beta, AI‑momentum names is pressuring the stock; this increases short‑term volatility risk for investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on NET shares. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Cloudflare from $199.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Citizens Jmp raised their price target on shares of Cloudflare from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Cloudflare in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $235.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $232.48.

Cloudflare Stock Down 9.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $65.06 billion, a PE ratio of -617.72, a PEG ratio of 124.54 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The business has a fifty day moving average of $195.16 and a 200 day moving average of $206.17.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 5.12% and a negative return on equity of 6.54%. The company had revenue of $562.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $544.65 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.7% on a year-over-year basis. Cloudflare has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.270-0.270 EPS and its FY 2025 guidance at 0.910-0.910 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cloudflare, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cloudflare news, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.32, for a total value of $10,231,642.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,331,221. This represents a 70.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,099 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.26, for a total value of $6,993,826.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 24,555 shares in the company, valued at $4,892,829.30. This trade represents a 58.84% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 619,213 shares of company stock worth $122,370,244 over the last 90 days. 10.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NET. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 693.3% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 119 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Wiser Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Cloudflare during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Cloudflare by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 130 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cloudflare during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 101.4% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare Company Profile

Cloudflare, Inc is a global web infrastructure and security company that provides a suite of services designed to improve the performance, reliability and security of internet properties. Its core offerings include a content delivery network (CDN), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, managed DNS, and a web application firewall (WAF). Cloudflare also provides tools for bot management, SSL/TLS, load balancing and rate limiting to help organizations maintain uptime and protect web applications from attack.

In addition to traditional edge and security services, Cloudflare has expanded into edge computing and developer platforms.