Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stake in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 90.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,058 shares of the company’s stock after selling 68,506 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Elastic were worth $542,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Asset Dedication LLC grew its position in shares of Elastic by 1,333.3% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC bought a new position in Elastic during the second quarter worth $40,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Elastic in the second quarter worth $40,000. Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new stake in Elastic during the second quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of Elastic by 44.1% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 389 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Elastic Trading Up 14.8 %

Elastic stock opened at $108.03 on Monday. Elastic has a 52-week low of $69.00 and a 52-week high of $136.06. The company has a market cap of $11.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 196.42 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.91.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $347.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $344.67 million. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 13.54% and a net margin of 4.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.35) EPS. Analysts predict that Elastic will post -0.92 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESTC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on Elastic from $94.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Elastic from $98.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Elastic from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Elastic from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Elastic in a research report on Friday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Elastic

In related news, CFO Janesh Moorjani sold 6,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total transaction of $487,605.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 195,550 shares in the company, valued at $13,737,387.50. The trade was a 3.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 19,649 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total transaction of $1,380,342.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 432,648 shares in the company, valued at $30,393,522. The trade was a 4.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,406 shares of company stock valued at $2,627,772 in the last quarter. 15.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Elastic Company Profile

Elastic N.V., a data analytics company, delivers solutions designed to run in public or private clouds in multi-cloud environments. It primarily offers Elastic Stack, a set of software products that ingest and store data from various sources and formats, as well as performs search, analysis, and visualization on that data.