Cloudflare stock plunges more than 20% after revising guidance down

Signage outside Cloudflare's headquarters in San Francisco California, U.S.A. on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. Cloudflare Inc. will release its earnings on February 10.

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Cloudflare's shares fell as much as 25 percent in Thursday's after-hours trade after the company missed its top-line targets for the first quarter and revised down its revenue guidance for the full year.

These are the important numbers:

Cloudflare has revised its full-year revenue forecast for 2023 downward. Cloudflare guided for a full-year revenue of around $1.28 Billion, as opposed to a previous consensus of $1.33 Billion. This revision is also a significant drop from Cloudflare’s previous guidance, which was between $1.3 billion and $1.34billion.

The company reported a loss of 38 million dollars for the third quarter, down from a loss of 41 million dollars for the previous quarter.

Investors reacted, despite the company's bottom line beating, to comments made by Cloudflare Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert. He said, "Increasing macroeconomic uncertainties over the course the first quarter led to a material extension of sales cycles, and a backend-weighting that was significant."

Cloudflare also provided guidance below the consensus estimate for the second quarter of 2023. Cloudflare forecast revenue of between $305 million and $306 millions, compared to a consensus estimate $319 million.