Cloudflare (NET) Stock Can Q3 Results Justify Its Rich Valuation

Simply Wall St · 1d ago

Cloudflare stock ripped almost 10% higher today after its Q3 2026 results hit the tape, a sharp rebound for a share price that had been under pressure over the past month. The headline is simple: Revenue reached about US$782.5 million while the business still reported a net loss. Traders are cheering the short term relief. Long term investors are staring at the same thing that mattered yesterday: a rich P/S multiple near 35x and a path to profitability that still needs to catch up with the valuation story.

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Q3 2026 Earnings Summary

  • Revenue (Q3 2026 vs. Q3 2025): US$782.5 million vs. US$562.0 million (higher year on year)
  • Net Loss (Q3 2026 vs. Q3 2025): US$34.1 million loss vs. US$1.3 million loss (loss widened year on year)
  • Basic EPS (Q3 2026 vs. Q3 2025): US$0.048 loss per share vs. US$0.002 loss per share (larger loss per share year on year)
  • Trailing 12 Month Net Loss (Q3 2026 vs. Q3 2025): US$239.1 million loss vs. US$103.0 million loss (aggregate losses increased over the year)

Revenue is racing ahead while Cloudflare still posts losses. Ask Charlie what justifies Cloudflare’s rich valuation today.

NYSE:NET Trailing 12-Month Revenue & Expenses Breakdown as at Nov 2026
NYSE:NET Trailing 12-Month Revenue & Expenses Breakdown as at Nov 2026

Cloudflare’s Agentic Ambitions Meet Early Usage Milestones

The bullish story around Cloudflare hinges on whether rising AI and developer activity really turns into richer, more durable revenue streams. One key claim is explicit.

"The rapid increase in developers on the Workers platform, from 7.4 million in Q2 2026 to more than 10 million by October 2026, creates room for higher attach of paid services around agent workloads that can lift consumption based revenue and improve gross profit dollars even if per user spend remains modest."

Q3 revenue growth of 39% year on year and raised full year guidance toward US$2.96b indicate that Cloudflare is translating this surge in usage into stronger top line performance, even though the widening GAAP loss and higher trailing twelve month losses show that the margin side of that ambition is not yet visible.

The price and this Narrative do not agree. → Uncover what this Narrative says Cloudflare is actually worth.

Cloudflare’s Restructuring Risk Still Has Something To Prove

Bearish investors worry that Cloudflare’s aggressive headcount cuts and severance spend create a self inflicted earnings ceiling just as AI workloads ramp.

"The rapid restructuring that removed roughly 20% of Cloudflare’s workforce and generated about US$151 million of severance and related charges in Q2 2026, with up to US$165 million expected for full year 2026, risks pushing the organisation into an execution gap at the same time that AI driven traffic and new product lines require faster iteration."

Q3 tells a mixed story. Revenue guidance moved up again and developers on Workers passed 10 million, which points to continued commercial traction. At the same time, GAAP net loss widened and trailing 12 month losses more than doubled. That gap between strong demand signals and still rising cumulative losses means the feared execution drag is not clearly resolved yet.

Hunt For Mispriced Growth Engines

Cloudflare highlights how quickly sentiment can change around a single quarter. The real opportunity lies in finding stocks that could be undervalued before sharper pricing closes the gap.

  • Company 1 - 39% below our estimate - targets data center customers seeking denser, more efficient NAND for AI-intensive storage.
  • Company 2 - 27% below our estimate - focuses on complex manufacturing programs as aerospace, defense and healthcare clients consolidate production.
  • Company 3 - 40% below our estimate - strengthens its role in AI compute as customers standardize around its GPU platforms and software.

Those are three of them. See all 41 potentially undervalued companies →