Cloudflare Inc (NET) stock analysis
Cloudflare Inc (NET) clears 2 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 0 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 0 of 5 Lynch-style checks. At $303.61 it trades 1917.9% above this site's neutral DCF value (a margin of safety of -1917.9%). Its earnings quality rates Mixed and it returns −0.4% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does Cloudflare do?
Cloudflare sells network security and performance services that sit in front of websites and apps, blocking attacks and speeding up delivery, plus developer and zero-trust tools, mostly on subscription.
Brands and businesses it owns
- Cloudflare Workers
- 1.1.1.1
What stands out about Cloudflare?
- The share price implies more than 40% yearly growth. At $303.61, free cash flow per share would have to grow faster than 40% a year, fading to 2.5% by year 10, for this site's DCF to match the price. Change the assumptions.
- Misses 2 of the 8 value filters. It fails Price/Book < 8 (66.98) and Price/Sales < 7 (43.19); the other 2 pass and 4 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Weakest against peers: free-cash-flow yield. At 0.3% (peer median 3.8%) it ranks 44th of 44 among technology stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Earnings quality: Mixed · 1 flag, 1 watch. Beneish M-score −2.95 · accruals −15.1% of assets · stock comp 20.8% of revenue · share count +2.2% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025). See the Earnings Quality Screener.
- Owners are being diluted. Its net shareholder yield is −0.4%: more stock is issued than is bought back or paid out. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
How has Cloudflare's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is Cloudflare undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) -1917.9%
- Wall St. analyst rating Buy · 3.79/5 39 analysts this month: 9 strong buy, 18 buy, 9 hold, 1 sell, 2 strong sell (Finnhub). Down from 3.82 last month.
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) 1.95 · Grey zone
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) Mixed · 1 flag, 1 watch Beneish M-score −2.95 · accruals −15.1% of assets · stock comp 20.8% of revenue · share count +2.2% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025) - see the Earnings Quality Screener for how each check is scored.
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) −0.4% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 0.0% + buybacks 0.0% − stock comp 0.4%, as a share of today's market cap. Stock comp outruns what comes back in cash. Over 5 years its split-adjusted share count rose 18%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) Profit did not grow in 10 years Operating profit −$68M → −$182M, capital needed $63M → −$80M, 2017–2025 (3-year averages); its capital is negative: customers and suppliers fund it. Buffett's See's Candies needed $0.42 per $1 of new profit, FlightSafety $3.20, a typical grower about $5. See Capital-Light Compounders.
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) n/a (falling or negative earnings)
- Compounder lenses (4) 0 of 4 · misses capital-light, real profit, cash back, price (n/a) Capital-light growth: not cleared (profit started from a loss); Profit is real: not cleared (1 earnings-quality flag); Cash to owners: not cleared (−0.3% a year net); Fair price (PEG): cannot be measured (falling or negative earnings). See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Value trap check Clear
- Munger's Inversion Check 2 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 1 of 5 measures above the median Compared with the 43 other technology stocks this site tracks: 1 in the top third, 4 in the bottom third.
How does Cloudflare compare with its peers?
1 of 5 measure sits above the median of the 43 other technology stocks tracked here, 1 in the top third and 4 in the bottom third.
- Free-cash-flow yieldhigher is cheaper · peer median 3.8% 0.3% ✕44th of 44
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 24% −14% ✕43rd of 44
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 16.9% −8.2% ✕43rd of 44
- Revenue growthhigher is better, year on year · peer median 19.1% 33.5% ✓9th of 44
- Debt / equitylower is safer · peer median 0.60 2.02 ✕39th of 44
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and NET doesn't clear enough of it yet. Where it comes up short: NET isn't clearing the return-on-equity bar he'd want to see right now, and its five-year average return on equity falls short too, so this isn't just a one-off dip, carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, runs thinner pretax margins than he'd like to see, hasn't grown earnings per share fast enough over five years to impress him, doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want, is trading above what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth right now, and trades rich relative to owner earnings, the real cash the business could pay out.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✕
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✕
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✕
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✕
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✕
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and NET falls short of his bar. Where it comes up short: NET fails his signature PEG test, he'd call this pricey for the growth on offer, is growing earnings outside the 10–25% range he considered the sustainable sweet spot, is leaning on more debt than he liked a growth story to carry, is asking investors to pay a steep multiple for that growth, and isn't generating free cash flow to match the growth story.
- PEG < 1 ✕
- EPS growth 10%-25% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- P/E < 27 n/a
- Price/FCF < 30 ✕
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does Cloudflare pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $108.5B
- Trailing P/E < 25 n/a
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 -7.30
- Price/Book < 8 66.98
- Price/Sales < 7 43.19
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% n/a
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is Cloudflare's margin of safety?
-2266% on 2026-10-07 → -1918% on 2026-10-23 (5 weekly readings).
Where is Cloudflare in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in Cloudflare?
7,664,139 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with Cloudflare? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case -1092%
- Short interest under 5% of float 2.4%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 4/6 passed
- Price run-up backed by value, not just momentum +92% off 52wk low
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have Cloudflare shareholders gained per year?
Not enough clean earnings history to compute this for NET yet - a loss year in the window breaks the growth math rather than faking a number through it.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from NET's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do Cloudflare's 10-year financials show?
From NET's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 9 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about Cloudflare
What kind of company is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare sells network security and performance services that sit in front of websites and apps, blocking attacks and speeding up delivery, plus developer and zero-trust tools, mostly on subscription. Brands and businesses it owns include Cloudflare Workers and 1.1.1.1. This site groups it with Technology stocks.
Is Cloudflare trading above or below its DCF value?
At $303.61, NET trades 1917.9% above this site's neutral DCF value of $15.05 per share, a margin of safety of −1917.9%. That DCF projects free cash flow for 10 years, with growth starting at 8% and fading to 2.5%, discounted at 10%; it is one set of assumptions, not a forecast. Test your own in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does Cloudflare pass?
NET passes 2 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($108.5B) and PEG Ratio < 1.5 (-7.30). It misses Price/Book < 8 (66.98) and Price/Sales < 7 (43.19). Trailing P/E < 25, EPS Growth YoY > -5%, vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
Are Cloudflare's reported earnings reliable?
This site's earnings-quality check rates NET Mixed · 1 flag, 1 watch. Beneish M-score −2.95 · accruals −15.1% of assets · stock comp 20.8% of revenue · share count +2.2% a year. From the latest 10-K (year to Dec 2025). Concerns: stock-based compensation (flagged) and share dilution (on watch). The five checks are the Beneish M-score (manipulation risk), accruals, cash conversion, stock-based compensation and share dilution; the Earnings Quality Screener shows how each is graded.
How fast has Cloudflare grown its revenue and profit?
From fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2025, NET's revenue grew from $135 million to $2.2 billion, 41.5% a year. Net income went from −$11.0 million to −$102 million, and its net profit margin from -8.1% to -4.7%. In fiscal 2025 it produced $287 million of free cash flow (cash from operations minus capital spending), 13.2% of its revenue. All figures are from NET's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR) and are shown year by year in the 10-Year Financials section of the card above.
When does Cloudflare report earnings next?
Cloudflare's next earnings report is expected on November 5, 2026 after the market closes, with analysts expecting earnings of $0.35 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 4 times, by an average of +7.3%.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: Cloudflare's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 26, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this Cloudflare Inc analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on Cloudflare Inc (NET) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.