Cloudflare Boosts Japan Security Services With Rakuten Mobile Partnership

Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst

NET+1.96%

SPRX+1.22%

LRNZ+1.63%

Source: Benzinga

Updated: Apr 24 2025

0mins

Source: Benzinga

Strategic Alliance: Cloudflare has partnered with Rakuten Mobile in Japan to provide Zero Trust security solutions as a managed service, aimed at enhancing cybersecurity for corporate clients and addressing the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Market Impact: The collaboration is expected to help Japanese businesses improve their security posture amidst rising cyber threats, with Cloudflare's infrastructure and Rakuten's regional expertise facilitating cost-effective cybersecurity solutions.

NET

$173.3+Infinity%1D

Analyst Views on NET

Wall Street analysts forecast NET stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for NET is 253.24 USD with a low forecast of 131.00 USD and a high forecast of 318.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.

25 Analyst Rating

15 Buy

10 Hold

0 Sell

Moderate Buy

Current: 169.970

Low

131.00

Averages

253.24

High

318.00

Current: 169.970

Low

131.00

Averages

253.24

High

318.00

Mizuho

Outperform

NULL

downgrade

$280 -> $255

2026-01-21

New

Reason

Mizuho

Price Target

$280 -> $255

AI Analysis

2026-01-21

New

downgrade

Outperform

NULL

Reason

Mizuho lowered the firm's price target on Cloudflare to $255 from $280 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm adjusted targets in large-cap software as part of a Q4 earnings preview. Channel checks were solid overall, with public cloud data points were "generally good" and AI adoption "very strong," the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, Mizuho says some of its checks noted more moderate budget flush activity than usual. In addition, growing investor concerns about AI disruption :continue to decimate many software company multiples," the firm contends. It cites recent multiple compression for the target cuts.

Truist

Buy

downgrade

$275 -> $225

2026-01-20

New

Reason

Truist

Price Target

$275 -> $225

2026-01-20

New

downgrade

Buy

Reason

Truist lowered the firm's price target on Cloudflare to $225 from $275 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares as part of a broader research note previewing Q4 for Cybersecurity names. Companies in the firm's coverage should report a strong calendar Q4 and take a conservative posture for guidance, so that model setups could drive a continued beat-and-raise cadence for 2026, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Conversations with IT budget holders and software sellers indicate demand and the macro environment remains unchanged, with continued momentum in Security & AI initiatives, the firm added. Truist notes however that software equities have entered 2026 under pronounced pressure as investors rotate toward AI hardware, also pointing to concerns about AI-driven competitive disruption, slow monetization of AI features, higher-for-longer interest rates, and acute geopolitical shocks converge across the sector driving the IGV - iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF - down about 7% just in the first couple of weeks of trading.

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Citi

Buy

downgrade

$318 -> $260

2026-01-16

Reason

Citi

Price Target

$318 -> $260

2026-01-16

downgrade

Buy

Reason

Citi lowered the firm's price target on Cloudflare to $260 from $318 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Citi also added an "upside 90-day short-term view" on Cloudflare. The analyst sees an attractive entry point following the stock's recent selloff.

Piper Sandler

Neutral

downgrade

$249 -> $220

2026-01-05

Reason

Piper Sandler

Price Target

$249 -> $220

2026-01-05

downgrade

Neutral

Reason

Piper Sandler lowered the firm's price target on Cloudflare to $220 from $249 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm is lowering multiple to 22-times sales. Piper still views it as best-in-class infrastructure and a decent setup for 2026 guide, but says that valuation at 1-time EV/Revenue/Growth already gives a lot of credit.

About NET

Cloudflare, Inc. is a connectivity cloud company. Its full suite of products consists of its website and application services to deliver security, performance, and reliability for an organization's websites, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs); its secure access service edge (SASE) platform, which contains its suite of Zero Trust and network services solutions to help ensure traffic in and out of an organization’s internal network and devices is verified and authorized as well as to securely connect data centers, cloud services, and branch offices to an organization with its Connectivity Cloud; its developer-based solutions to build and deploy serverless applications with scale, performance, security and reliability, and its consumer offerings. Its website and application security product offerings include Web Application Firewall, Bot Management, Distributed Denial of Service Protection, API Security, SSL/TLS Encryption, Script Management, and Security Center.

About the author

Emily J. Thompson

Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.