** Shares of Cloudflare NET.N rallying 4.5% to $181.59 on Tues ahead of qtrly results after the bell

** Shares of NET surged almost 8% on Jan. 27 after social media buzz around the "Clawdbot" AI agent fueled investor ​enthusiasm for the co's tools that help run ‌the technology

** The cloud and network security provider is expected to post qtrly rev of $591.3 mln, up 29% yr-over-yr, with adj EPS of $0.27 vs $0.19 a yr ago, per LSEG

** NET's stock has fallen ~7.9% YTD, underperforming the S&P 500's .SPX 1.6% gain

** Of 36 analysts covering the co, 21 rate the stock 'buy' or 'strong buy', 12 'hold' and three 'sell' or 'strong sell'

(Reporting by Noel Randewich)

((noel.randewich@thomsonreuters.com))