Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Rating Increased to Outperform at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) from a hold rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Robert W. Baird currently has $260.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on NET. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Cloudflare in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. JMP Securities set a $270.00 target price on Cloudflare in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Cloudflare from $318.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cloudflare currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.21.

Cloudflare Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Cloudflare stock traded up $1.22 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $190.63. The company had a trading volume of 1,963,942 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,064,864. The company has a market cap of $66.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -659.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 156.00 and a beta of 1.97. Cloudflare has a fifty-two week low of $89.42 and a fifty-two week high of $260.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $190.74 and its 200-day moving average is $204.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.04.

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $614.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $591.67 million. Cloudflare had a negative return on equity of 7.40% and a negative net margin of 4.72%.Cloudflare’s quarterly revenue was up 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Cloudflare will post -0.11 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 35,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.26, for a total transaction of $6,993,826.74. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 24,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,892,829.30. The trade was a 58.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew Prince sold 52,384 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.32, for a total transaction of $10,231,642.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,331,221. This trade represents a 70.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 633,347 shares of company stock worth $124,873,834 over the last ninety days. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cloudflare

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Cloudflare by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,407,646 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,389,167,000 after purchasing an additional 90,397 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,018,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,184,044,000 after purchasing an additional 241,981 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Cloudflare by 1.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,964,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $850,792,000 after buying an additional 49,485 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cloudflare during the fourth quarter valued at about $718,316,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Cloudflare by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,824,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,904,000 after buying an additional 131,127 shares during the last quarter. 82.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cloudflare News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations: revenue $614.5M (+33.6% YoY) and EPS $0.28, with management highlighting record new ACV and accelerating RPO metrics — supports higher revenue growth trajectory. Business Wire: Q4 results
• Positive Sentiment: Company raised FY‑2026 revenue outlook (~$2.795B) and guided above Street estimates for near term, reducing short‑term downside risk to top‑line expectations. Reuters: Guidance and AI demand
• Positive Sentiment: AI-agent tailwind: management and multiple outlets point to rising agentic traffic (e.g., Moltbot) boosting demand for Cloudflare’s networking and security stack — a structural growth catalyst for recurring revenue. CNBC: AI agent wave
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and target hikes (including Robert W. Baird upgrade to Outperform, PT $260; Wells Fargo and Barclays raising targets) add momentum and give investors explicit upside scenarios. Zacks: Baird upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation/catch‑up coverage: several outlets ran “valuation check” pieces after the earnings/guidance beat — useful context for investors weighing higher multiples vs. faster growth. Yahoo: Valuation check
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions are mixed: some firms maintained neutral ratings or trimmed targets (Cantor Fitzgerald $224 neutral; Needham trimmed PT but kept buy), showing divergence on pacing and margins. StreetInsider: Cantor Fitzgerald
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: a director sold 2,520 shares (small vs. holdings) — a possible near‑term psychological headwind for some investors. SEC: Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Institutional trimming: at least one fund (Alfreton Capital) materially reduced its position, indicating some profit‑taking after recent run‑up. DefenseWorld: Alfreton selling

About Cloudflare

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.