Short Interest in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) Drops By 14.6%

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,850,000 shares, a decline of 14.6% from the December 31st total of 13,880,000 shares. Currently, 4.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Michelangelo Volpi sold 477,952 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.41, for a total value of $12,622,712.32. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 317,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,374,056.39. This represents a 60.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 2,096 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total transaction of $59,170.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 190,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,382,896.40. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,370,589 shares of company stock worth $127,326,348 in the last ninety days. 13.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Confluent by 3.6% in the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake 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 during the period. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Confluent by 5.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 24,420 shares of the company’s stock worth $721,000 after buying an additional 1,238 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Confluent by 354.0% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 1,607 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Stock Performance

Shares of CFLT stock opened at $29.50 on Friday. Confluent has a 52-week low of $17.79 and a 52-week high of $35.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.03. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $9.68 billion, a PE ratio of -26.58 and a beta of 0.91.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released 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. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.05% and a negative net margin of 38.35%. The business had revenue of $250.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $243.98 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Confluent will post -0.9 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Confluent in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Confluent in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Confluent from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Confluent presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.37.

Confluent Company Profile

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.