Needham & Company LLC Cuts Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) Price Target to $250.00

Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) had its price objective decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $285.00 to $250.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Cloudflare from $280.00 to $255.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Cloudflare in a research note on Monday, November 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $260.00 price target for the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Cloudflare from $318.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $185.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Cloudflare from $117.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $232.11.

Cloudflare Price Performance

Cloudflare stock opened at $196.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -675.84, a PEG ratio of 328.65 and a beta of 1.97. Cloudflare has a 52-week low of $89.42 and a 52-week high of $260.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $190.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $204.76. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $591.67 million. Cloudflare had a negative net margin of 4.72% and a negative return on equity of 7.40%. The business’s revenue was up 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Cloudflare will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Carl Ledbetter sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.16, for a total transaction of $3,167,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 953,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $201,250,894.68. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michelle Zatlyn sold 25,641 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.05, for a total value of $4,873,072.05. Following the sale, the insider owned 24,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,666,677.75. This represents a 51.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 633,347 shares of company stock valued at $124,873,834 over the last 90 days. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cloudflare

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NET. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cloudflare in the 4th quarter worth $718,316,000. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Cloudflare by 802.6% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,863,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657,144 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in Cloudflare during the second quarter valued at $225,204,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cloudflare by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,317,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,934,958,000 after buying an additional 821,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Cloudflare by 1,388.7% in the 2nd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 736,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,161,000 after buying an additional 686,702 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.68% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Cloudflare

Here are the key news stories impacting Cloudflare this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat — Cloudflare reported revenue of ~$614.5M (+33.6% YoY) and EPS of $0.28, with management highlighting record deal activity, rising RPO/cRPO and improving free cash flow. MSN: Q4 growth
• Positive Sentiment: Revenue guidance topped estimates — management raised FY‑2026 revenue outlook (management cited a figure near $2.795B), signaling confidence in sustained demand and driving the rally. Investing.com: Guidance beats
• Positive Sentiment: AI tailwind — multiple reports and management commentary point to rising “agentic” traffic (e.g., Moltbot) that boosts security, networking and edge services, creating a durable demand cycle. Yahoo: AI deals
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and higher targets — several firms upgraded or raised targets (examples include Robert W. Baird to outperform/$260 and DZ Bank to buy/$215), adding conviction to the upside thesis. Finviz: Analyst moves
• Positive Sentiment: Elevated options activity — unusually large call buying (13,474 contracts) suggests short‑term bullish/speculative positioning around the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst notes — some firms reaffirm neutral/hold stances (Cantor Fitzgerald) or trimmed PTs modestly while keeping buy ratings, reflecting differing views on valuation vs. growth. Zacks: Analyst roundup
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation questions persist — coverage pieces and valuation checks note Cloudflare’s rich multiples given ongoing margin/headwind dynamics, so upside depends on continued revenue leverage. Yahoo: Valuation check
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sale disclosed — director John Graham‑Cumming sold 2,520 shares; small relative to his holdings but noted by the market. SEC: Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Institutional profit‑taking — at least one fund materially trimmed its stake in recent filings, evidence of some near‑term selling pressure amid the rally. DefenseWorld: Institutional trimming
• Negative Sentiment: Some target cuts — a few analysts reduced price targets (e.g., Scotiabank), underscoring uneven short‑term sentiment despite the beat. TickerReport: PT cuts

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.