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

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $31.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Confluent from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Confluent from $37.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Confluent from $40.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Confluent to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.88.

Confluent Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ CFLT opened at $27.51 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.24, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Confluent has a 1-year low of $17.79 and a 1-year high of $35.07. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.55. The company has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a PE ratio of -24.78 and a beta of 0.82.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Confluent

In related news, Director Matthew Craig Miller sold 1,084,259 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.90, for a total value of $31,335,085.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total transaction of $4,647,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 452,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,045,235.12. The trade was a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,308,766 shares of company stock worth $90,381,635. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Confluent

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Confluent during the second quarter worth about $68,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its stake in Confluent by 125.0% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Confluent by 40.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,991 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 859 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Confluent in the third quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Confluent by 25.5% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,167 shares in 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.