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

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 90.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its holdings in Elastic by 1,333.3% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Elastic in the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Elastic by 75.4% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Elastic by 21.2% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $198,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 7,017 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.12, for a total transaction of $758,678.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 395,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,742,647.12. The trade was a 1.74 % 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, insider Carolyn Herzog sold 11,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.34, for a total value of $1,240,884.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 92,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,244,504.74. The trade was a 10.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 168,162 shares of company stock valued at $18,637,562 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Elastic Stock Performance

Elastic stock opened at $101.40 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $98.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Elastic has a 52 week low of $69.00 and a 52 week high of $136.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 184.36 and a beta of 1.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ESTC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised Elastic from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Elastic from $99.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Elastic from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Elastic from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Elastic from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.50.

About Elastic

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.