Cloudflare (NET) Expands Tie Up With CrowdStrike, Boosts Portfolio

Cloudflare NET recently announced that it has expanded its partnership with the Sunnyvale, CA-based leader in next-generation endpoint protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services — CrowdStrike CRWD. Per the deal, the website security company will integrate its Zero Trust platform with CrowdStrike’s Falcon Zero Trust Assessment platform to provide more powerful Zero Trust solutions to joint customers of both companies.

Cloudflare’s Zero Trust platform is an information technology security model that requires strict identity verification for every person and device trying to access resources on a private network, regardless of whether they are sitting within or outside of the network perimeter. It accesses all user applications to authenticate them on its global edge network and onboards third-party users seamlessly.

The platform comes with Secure Web Gateway to enhance visibility and protection into SaaS applications. It offers remote browsing solutions, thus negating the impact of attacks and executing all browser codes in cloud form.

Combining insights from the company's global network with CrowdStrike’s CrowdXDR Alliance platform, Cloudflare will help mutual customers identify and stop cyberattacks. In case of an attack, CrowdStrike will work with Cloudflare to help get customers’ web properties and networks back online.

Cloudflare, Inc. Price and Consensus

Cloudflare, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Cloudflare, Inc. Quote

Cloudflare has been benefiting from solid demand for security solutions, which became imperative due to aggravated cyberattacks, work and learn from home policies and a zero-trust approach. Recently, the company launched the Cloudflare Application Programming Interfaces ("API") Gateway to deliver simple, fast, and effective protection to all of its businesses while controlling their APIs.

The new release leverages Cloudflare’s Machine Learning engine to analyze API traffics and offers complete visibility by scanning the entire network and listing API endpoints automatically.

Prior to that, Cloudflare announced that it would offer email security to all of its enterprise customers to protect them from phishing and malware attacks after it closes the Area 1 Security buyout.

Cloudflare reported revenues of $193.6 million in its latest quarterly report. In fiscal 2021, the company added 588 large customers (customers with Annualized Revenues greater than $100,000), taking the total count to 1,416 large customers. Large customers represented 54% of 2021 revenues. This uptrend, which has prevailed over the past few quarters, is driven by elevated demand for its cloud-based solutions amid the pandemic-led remote-working wave.

It is worth mentioning that Cloudflare was recognized under the Leaders category in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Commercial CDN 2022 Vendor Assessment, a premier vendor assessment tool providing in-depth quantitative and qualitative technology market assessments of information and communications vendors for a wide range of technology markets.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Cloudflare and CrowdStrike currently carries Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of NET and CRWD have jumped 51% and 1.4% respectively, in the past year.

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader computer and technology sector are Advanced Micro Devices AMD sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Axcelis Technologies ACLS carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMD’s first-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings has been revised upward by 23 cents to 91 cents per share over the past 60 days. For fiscal 2022, AMD’s earnings estimates have moved south by a penny to $3.99 per share in the past 30 days.

AMD’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 17%. Shares of AMD have gained 41.3% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Axcelis’ first-quarter 2022 earnings has been revised upward by 5 cents to 92 cents per share over the past 60 days. For 2022, Axcelis’ earnings estimates have moved north by 12.4% to $3.99 per share in the past 60 days.

Axcelis’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 30.3%. Shares of ACLS have soared 106.2% in the past year.

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