Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $40.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 50.32% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Confluent from $27.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group raised Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays raised their price target on Confluent from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Confluent from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.15.

Confluent Trading Down 7.1 %

Shares of Confluent stock opened at $26.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.64 and a beta of 0.90. Confluent has a fifty-two week low of $17.79 and a fifty-two week high of $37.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 3.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $29.93 and a 200 day moving average of $26.63.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $2,476,320.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 520,273 shares in the company, valued at $18,849,490.79. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total transaction of $113,436.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 179,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,171,446.86. This trade represents a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,427,353 shares of company stock worth $46,561,127. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Confluent by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 10,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Confluent by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Confluent by 3.6% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 503 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in Confluent by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jasper Ridge Partners L.P. lifted its stake in Confluent by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Jasper Ridge Partners L.P. now owns 14,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $403,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. 78.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.