Cloudflare Inc (NYSE:NET) stock is trading upwards Thursday after Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges upgraded the stock from Sell to Buy and raised its price target from $77 to $140.
Security stock performance in 2024 can almost entirely be explained by the extent to which the market believed each company was a platform rather than a point product, as per the analyst.
Borges flagged two catalysts for Cloudflare stock in 2025, including an improving sales and marketing productivity cycle after two years of evolution to better address platform sales in the enterprise and traction with Act III products for developer services as Cloudflare applies its core edge network architecture advantages to new AI inferencing use cases.
The price target boost reflects a jump in the multiple from 11x to 20x (Q5-Q8 revenue), raising the analyst's 2026 revenue estimates by 2%, given his views on sales productivity and Act III.
Borges changed his 2024, 2025, and 2026 EPS estimates to $0.75, $0.90, and $1.32 from $0.75, $0.86, and $1.12, driven by slightly more margin expansion, marking the highest target multiple in his coverage.
Borges downgraded Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) from Buy to Neutral and raised the price target from $204 to $207.
The analyst highlighted 2025 as a year of incremental investment for Check Point as its new CEO evaluates growth priorities and the company ramps up its new SASE products. Taken together, the analyst noted that EPS growth will be under pressure in 2025, and the stock typically tracks EPS growth. He noted an opportunity to become more positive into 2026, as the path to 10%+ revenue growth and 20%+ EPS growth comes back into focus if Check Point successfully converts incremental investments into incremental revenue growth.
Borges compared Check Point to Software companies with less than 10% revenue growth and enough EPS to be valued using a P/E methodology. Relative to this peer group (median 2025 P/E of 17x), Check Point offers similar revenue growth (6% on Street estimates versus 6% for peers in 2025) but better Rule of 40 (~47 versus 35).
The analyst also used the S&P 500 as a point of comparison: The S&P 500 is trading at 22x 2025 EPS while offering ~10% EPS growth; relative to the S&P 500, Check Point provides similar cross-cycle earnings growth.
Borges revised 2024, 2025, and 2026 EPS from $9.10, $9.75, and $10.95 to $9.10, $9.45, and $10.65 to reflect an operating expenditure trend consistent with recent history and introduced 2027 EPS of $12.25.
Price Actions: NET stock is up 4.59% at $112.62 at last check Thursday. CHKP is down 0.80%.
Cloudflare Inc（紐約證券交易所代碼：NET）股票週四上漲，此前高盛分析師加布裏埃拉·博爾赫斯將該股從賣出上調至買入，並將目標股價從77美元上調至140美元。
分析師認爲，2024年的證券股表現幾乎完全可以用市場在多大程度上認爲每家公司是平台而不是積分產品來解釋。
博爾赫斯指出了2025年Cloudflare股票的兩個催化劑，包括在經過兩年的演變後改善了銷售和營銷生產力週期，以更好地解決企業平台銷售問題，以及Cloudflare將其核心邊緣網絡架構優勢應用於新的人工智能推理用例時，第三號法案開發者服務產品的吸引力。
鑑於分析師對銷售生產率和第三號法案的看法，目標股價的上漲反映了倍數從11倍躍升至20倍（Q5-Q8 收入），將分析師2026年的收入預期提高了2％。
博爾赫斯將2024年、2025年和2026年的每股收益預期從0.75美元、0.86美元和1.12美元上調至0.75美元、0.90美元和1.32美元，這得益於利潤率略有擴大，創下了其覆蓋範圍中最高的目標倍數。
博爾赫斯將Check Point Software Technologies（納斯達克股票代碼：CHKP）的評級從買入下調至中性，並將目標股價從204美元上調至207美元。
這位分析師強調2025年是Check Point增量投資的一年，因爲其新任首席執行官正在評估增長優先事項，該公司正在加大其新的SASE產品力度。總而言之，該分析師指出，到2025年，每股收益的增長將面臨壓力，該股通常會追蹤每股收益的增長。他指出，如果Check Point成功地將增量投資轉化爲增量收入增長，則10％以上的收入增長和20％以上的每股收益增長之路將重新成爲人們關注的焦點，從而有機會在2026年變得更加樂觀。
博爾赫斯將Check Point與收入增長低於10％、每股收益足以使用市盈率方法估值的軟體公司進行了比較。相對於該同行群體（2025年市盈率中位數爲17倍），Check Point的收入增長相似（華爾街估計爲6％，而2025年同行爲6％），但40法則更好（約47比35）。
該分析師還使用標準普爾500指數作爲比較點：標準普爾500指數的交易價格爲2025年每股收益的22倍，同時每股收益增長約10％；與標準普爾500指數相比，Check Point提供了類似的跨週期收益增長。
博爾赫斯將2024年、2025年和2026年的每股收益從9.10美元、9.75美元和10.95美元修訂爲9.10美元、9.45美元和10.65美元，以反映與近期歷史一致的運營支出趨勢，並推出了2027年每股收益12.25美元。
價格走勢：週四最後一次檢查時，NET價上漲4.59％，至112.62美元。CHKP 下跌了 0.80%。
