Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Sees Strong Trading Volume After Analyst Upgrade

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Friday after Baird R W upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. Approximately 3,937,339 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 202% from the previous session’s volume of 1,302,963 shares.The stock last traded at $109.41 and had previously closed at $94.13.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on ESTC. Bank of America upped their price target on Elastic from $94.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Elastic from $98.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Elastic from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush raised shares of Elastic to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Elastic from $92.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Elastic currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Elastic

In other Elastic news, Director Paul R. Auvil III purchased 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $74.25 per share, with a total value of $1,485,000.00. Following the completion of 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 19,649 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total transaction of $1,380,342.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 432,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,393,522. This represents a 4.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,406 shares of company stock worth $2,627,772 over the last ninety days. 15.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Elastic

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Elastic by 993.0% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 17,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,728,000 after buying an additional 15,659 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Elastic by 24.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,232 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Elastic by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the first quarter worth $5,780,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Elastic by 44.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $385,000 after buying an additional 1,179 shares in the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Elastic Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $81.78 and a 200 day moving average of $97.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.10 billion, a PE 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 (NYSE:ESTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $347.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $344.67 million. Elastic had a net margin of 4.39% and a negative return on equity of 13.54%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.35) EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Elastic will post -0.92 EPS for the current year.

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.