Cloudflare (NET) Increases Yet Falls Behind Market: What Investors Need to Know

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Cloudflare (NET) closed the most recent trading day at $112.58, moving +0.9% from the previous trading session. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 1.1% for the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.91%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.35%.

Heading into today, shares of the web security and content delivery company had gained 7.57% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 5.09% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.22% in that time.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Cloudflare in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.18, reflecting a 20% increase from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $451.8 million, up 24.65% from the year-ago period.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $0.74 per share and a revenue of $1.66 billion, indicating changes of +51.02% and +28.12%, respectively, from the former year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Cloudflare. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 6.19% upward. Cloudflare currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, Cloudflare is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 150.78. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 32.85 of its industry.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 24, this industry ranks in the top 10% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.