Traders Purchase Large Volume of Confluent Call Options (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 13,693 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 72% compared to the average volume of 7,944 call options.

Insider Activity at Confluent

In other Confluent news, CAO Kong Phan sold 12,460 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.30, for a total value of $389,998.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 183,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,755,631.80. This trade represents a 6.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Matthew Craig Miller sold 347,646 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.69, for a total value of $11,364,547.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 22,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $741,670.72. This trade represents a 93.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,394,730 shares of company stock valued at $45,827,255 over the last ninety days. 13.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 72.2% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,083,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Confluent during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $81,092,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Confluent by 7,342.2% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,351,516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,319,919 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Confluent during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $64,658,000. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp bought a new position in Confluent during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $21,127,000. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Confluent Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $30.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 3.99. Confluent has a 52-week low of $17.79 and a 52-week high of $37.90. The firm has a market cap of $10.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -28.51 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s fifty day moving average is $29.86 and its 200 day moving average is $26.21.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative net margin of 35.81% and a negative return on equity of 34.70%. Research analysts predict that Confluent will post -0.83 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CFLT. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Confluent from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Confluent from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Confluent from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $34.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.15.

About Confluent

Confluent, Inc operates a data streaming platform in the United States and internationally. The company provides platforms that allow customers to connect their applications, systems, and data layers, such as Confluent Cloud, a managed cloud-native software-as-a-service; and Confluent Platform, an enterprise-grade self-managed software.