Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after DA Davidson lowered their price target on the stock from $42.00 to $28.00. The stock had previously closed at $23.81, but opened at $20.99. DA Davidson currently has a buy rating on the stock. Confluent shares last traded at $20.13, with a volume of 3,684,672 shares.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on CFLT. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Confluent from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their price target on Confluent from $38.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Confluent from $40.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Confluent from $40.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Confluent from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Confluent presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were 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 approximately $18,849,490.79. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.86, for a total transaction of $85,280.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 246,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,621,419.76. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,200,746 shares of company stock valued at $38,505,150. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Confluent

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Confluent by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,828,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,207,000 after purchasing an additional 599,582 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Confluent by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,834,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,940,000 after buying an additional 133,908 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Confluent by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,409,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,339,000 after buying an additional 84,163 shares in the last quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Confluent by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,880,000 after purchasing an additional 459,000 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter worth $81,092,000. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Stock Up 2.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 3.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $24.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.35 and a beta of 1.03.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.01. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.70% and a negative net margin of 35.81%. The business had revenue of $271.12 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $264.45 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.05 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

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.