Elastic Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:ESTC)

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 4,489 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 178% compared to the typical volume of 1,613 call options.

Elastic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESTC opened at $107.94 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.04. The stock has a market cap of $11.09 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. Elastic has a fifty-two week low of $69.00 and a fifty-two week high of $136.06.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.10. Elastic had a net margin of 4.62% and a negative return on equity of 17.54%. The company had revenue of $347.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $344.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.35) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Elastic will post -0.92 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Elastic

In other Elastic news, Director Paul R. Auvil III bought 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $74.25 per share, with a total value of $1,485,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,680,054.75. This trade represents a 761.32 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 19,649 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 432,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,393,522. This trade represents a 4.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,406 shares of company stock worth $2,627,772. Corporate insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Elastic

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ESTC. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Elastic by 12.7% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Elastic by 44.1% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 389 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Elastic by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Elastic by 7.0% during the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Elastic by 3.3% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 6,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $523,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ESTC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Elastic from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Elastic from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Elastic from $110.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Elastic in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wedbush raised Elastic to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Elastic currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.00.

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.