Saturna Capital Corp Makes New $243,000 Investment in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Saturna Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 8,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CFLT. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Confluent by 354.0% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Confluent during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Confluent during the third quarter valued at about $68,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 85.3% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of Confluent by 22,112.5% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 3,538 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Price Performance

Shares of Confluent stock opened at $25.50 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.61 and a beta of 0.89. Confluent, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.79 and a 1-year high of $37.90.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Confluent

In other Confluent news, insider Erica Schultz sold 63,729 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.47, for a total value of $1,878,093.63. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 502,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,806,435.28. This represents a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.36, for a total transaction of $6,826,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares in the company, valued at $13,285,047.68. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,248,478 shares of company stock valued at $40,003,844 in the last 90 days. 13.82% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $27.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group upgraded Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $34.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Confluent in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Confluent from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Confluent has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.33.

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.