Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Guggenheim raised their price target on the stock from $32.00 to $35.00. The stock had previously closed at $29.50, but opened at $30.57. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the stock. Confluent shares last traded at $30.70, with a volume of 357,093 shares traded.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Confluent from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Confluent from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Confluent in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Matthew Craig Miller sold 53,512 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.64, for a total value of $1,800,143.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 13,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total value of $378,677.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 483,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,646,184.39. The trade was a 2.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,370,589 shares of company stock valued at $127,326,348. 13.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Confluent by 354.0% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 1,607 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the third quarter valued at approximately $68,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Confluent by 85.3% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,136 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Confluent by 36.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DMC Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Stock Up 3.0 %

The company has a quick ratio of 4.24, a current ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $29.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.97 billion, a PE ratio of -27.36 and a beta of 0.91.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $250.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.98 million. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.05% and a negative net margin of 38.35%. Equities research analysts forecast that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.