Cybersecurity Shines in Troubled Software Sector: Cloudflare (NET) Earnings Today

Cloudflare (NET) reporting earnings after the closing bell Thursday.

Other names on the docket include DataDog (DDOG) this morning and Akamai Technologies (AKAM) this afternoon.

Cloudflare has seen significant strength this year, yesterday hitting all-time highs of 305 on the back of a +84% rally off the lows of 158.83 on Feb. 23. For security-focused companies like Cloudflare, the advent of artificial intelligence has been a boon to its double-edged sword nature in that it brings a host of opportunities as well as previously unimagined threats. Cybersecurity has held up far better than many other names in the sector during the recent so-called “SaaSsacre” AKA the “SaaSpocalypse” -- the potential apocalypse for Software as a Service. The rebound is shown by the Amplify Cybersecurity ETF (HACK) producing a +37% gain while the iShares Software ETF (IGV) showed a -8% drop during the past year.

One needs to look no further than recent events to see the ever-growing importance of cybersecurity. In late July and early August, cyberattacks struck municipal water systems in several U.S. states including Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These attacks targeted industrial control systems that controlled things like water pressure and remote monitoring and forced some facilities to switch to manual operations.

Here are three things to watch in Cloudflare’s earnings report:

 Outlook: The Street’s consensus is for earnings –per share of $0.27 against last year’s figure of $0.21 (+28.6%), and for revenue of $665.42 million vs. $512.32 million year-over-year (+29.9%). Last quarter’s EPS of $0.25 delivered an 8.7% earnings surprise, while Cloudflare’s average surprise is 11.6%, according to Zacks.

Analysts: Overall, recent analyst activity on Cloudflare has been bullish. Jefferies on Tuesday raised its price target to $290 from $225 while keeping a Hold rating, saying the company’s 2Q revenue growth guidance of 30% year-over-year looks achievable. Other firms including Bank of America, Oppenheimer, Truist, Citizens, and more raised price targets on Cloudflare in recent weeks.

Technicals: Cloudflare’s price action has formed an upward channel-type shape in recent weeks after shares made a relative low on Jul. 28 at 250.69 to form a double-bottom in conjunction with the lows after a gap up on Jul. 7. Shares Wednesday retreated to lows near 290, which roughly aligns with the previous peak from Jul. 15 as well as the 5-day Exponential Moving Average and now stands out as a notable area of potential support. The options market shows a potential expected move of +/-29.4 (10.4%) for Friday’s expiration, which is interesting as it roughly lines up with the Jul. 7 gap lows near 253. Meanwhile, the Aug. 21 monthly expiration projects a +/-43.1 move (15.2%), which gives an upper boundary of around 326.

Economic Events and Data, Thursday, August 6, 2026 (ET):

•  5:30 AM Challenger Job Cuts
• 08:30 AM: Jobless Claims
• 08:30 AM: Productivity and Costs
• 10:30 AM EIA Natural Gas Inventories
• 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet

Earnings Snapshot Thursday:

• Premarket: ConocoPhillips (COP), Datadog, Inc. (DDOG), Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD), NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG), Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH), Fox Corporation (FOX)
• Postmarket: Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB), DraftKings Inc. (DKNG), Twilio Inc. (TWLO), American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM), Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI), Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST)

Earnings Snapshot Friday:

• Premarket: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO), Vistra Corp. (VST), Under Armour, Inc. (UAA), Oklo Inc. (OKLO), Wendy’s Company (WEN), Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (PAA)
• Postmarket: N/A

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