Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $40.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 50.32% from the company’s previous close.

CFLT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group raised shares of Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $34.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.15.

Confluent Stock Performance

Shares of CFLT opened at $26.61 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $29.93 and its 200-day moving average is $26.63. Confluent has a 12 month low of $17.79 and a 12 month high of $37.90. The firm has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.64 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 4.24, a current ratio of 3.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last posted its 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%. Equities analysts expect that Confluent will post -0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Confluent news, Director Matthew Craig Miller sold 347,646 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.69, for a total transaction of $11,364,547.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 22,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $741,670.72. This trade represents a 93.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total transaction of $2,476,320.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 520,273 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,849,490.79. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,427,353 shares of company stock worth $46,561,127. Corporate insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Confluent by 72.2% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,083,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at $81,092,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in shares of Confluent by 7,342.2% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,351,516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,748,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,919 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at $64,658,000. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at $21,127,000. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

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.