Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Shares Up 6.4% – Still a Buy?

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)’s stock price shot up 6.4% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $32.66 and last traded at $32.77. 2,180,950 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 4,184,715 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.79.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CFLT. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.15.

Confluent Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $29.96 and its 200 day moving average is $26.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 3.99 and a quick ratio of 4.24. The company has a market cap of $10.41 billion, a PE ratio of -29.39 and a beta of 0.92.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 34.70% and a negative net margin of 35.81%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $2,476,320.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 520,273 shares in the company, valued at $18,849,490.79. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Erica Schultz sold 113,729 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.29, for a total transaction of $3,444,851.41. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 502,424 shares in the company, valued at $15,218,422.96. The trade was a 18.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,429,865 shares of company stock valued at $46,902,419. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Infinitum Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter worth $10,485,000. Cache Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter worth $1,322,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in Confluent during the fourth quarter valued at $2,088,000. Vident Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at $972,000. Finally, Tairen Capital Ltd increased its holdings in Confluent by 45.6% in the fourth quarter. Tairen Capital Ltd now owns 72,798 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 22,798 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.