Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Shares Up 6.2% – What’s Next?

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) shares shot up 6.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $33.58 and last traded at $33.50. 1,887,566 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 4,352,605 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.53.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CFLT shares. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Confluent in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Confluent from $33.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research raised Confluent to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Baird R W raised Confluent to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.23.

Confluent Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $11.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.11 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.70. The company has a current ratio of 4.24, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $250.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.98 million. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.05% and a negative net margin of 38.35%. On average, analysts expect that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Confluent news, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 13,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total transaction of $378,677.22. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 483,393 shares in the company, valued at $13,646,184.39. This trade represents a 2.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Stephanie Buscemi sold 164,123 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total value of $4,306,587.52. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 149,644 shares in the company, valued at $3,926,658.56. The trade was a 52.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 4,069,108 shares of company stock valued at $116,165,158. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CFLT. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Confluent during the 2nd quarter worth about $68,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at about $68,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Confluent during the second quarter worth about $175,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Confluent by 2,184.1% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 6,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $195,000 after acquiring an additional 6,312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Confluent in the third quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

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.