Could Cloudflare Stock Return to Growth in 2023?

Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) has come a long way since its late 2019 IPO. When it made its debut as a publicly traded stock, annualized revenue was just shy of $300 million. Just

three years later in Q3 of 2022, Cloudflare surpassed $1 billion in annualized sales for the first time. In spite of this incredible growth, though, shares have languished

since the end of 2021. Cloudflare's stock has fallen 80% from its all-time highs, and fell 66% in calendar year 2022. The bear market still isn't over, and given its

enduring hypergrowth expansion in 2022, it seems clear that the market is looking for more than simple revenue growth to solve problems with the stock. Could shares begin to rise

again in 2023?  Cloudflare addresses multiple secular growth trends We're at an interesting crossroads for the tech space. As the early pandemic digital business boom wears

off, lots of big tech companies have announced layoffs as they admit they overhired. That hasn't happened at Cloudflare yet. During the Q3 2022 earnings call, management

said total headcount increased 42% year over year to 3,180 employees. Revenue slowed down to "only" 47% growth year over year, and CEO Matthew Prince and the top team now have

their sights set on reaching $5 billion in annual revenue within the next five years.   Clearly, Cloudflare is catching on to something big. The core business is centered

around internet-based application services. Cloudflare is a CDN (content delivery network), meaning it acts as an internet infrastructure provider for companies hosting websites

and apps and moving data around. Built atop that are cybersecurity services that help a company embed security solutions directly into their apps.