Scotiabank Has Lowered Expectations for Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Stock Price

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Scotiabank from $35.00 to $24.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Scotiabank’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 0.54% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on CFLT. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Confluent from $42.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Confluent from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Confluent from $37.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.39.

Confluent Price Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $24.13 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.34 and a beta of 1.03. Confluent has a 12-month low of $17.79 and a 12-month high of $37.90. The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average is $25.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.37.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last announced 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 return on equity of 34.70% and a negative net margin of 35.81%. Research analysts expect that Confluent will post -0.83 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 520,273 shares in the company, valued at $18,849,490.79. This trade represents a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 6,346 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.22, for a total value of $229,852.12. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 179,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,504,858.46. The trade was a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,200,746 shares of company stock valued at $38,505,150 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CFLT. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in Confluent by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 21,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 2,367 shares in the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Confluent during the 4th quarter worth $758,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Confluent by 135.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 648,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,146,000 after purchasing an additional 373,682 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Confluent by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at about $252,000. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.