Pamplona Capital Management LLC Takes $20.87 Million Position in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Pamplona Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 210,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,866,000. Elastic comprises approximately 3.0% of Pamplona Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Pamplona Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.20% of Elastic at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Elastic during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Elastic during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Elastic by 793.3% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Elastic by 126.4% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 283 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Elastic by 1,065.2% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on ESTC shares. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Elastic in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Elastic from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Elastic from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Elastic from $130.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Elastic from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Shay Banon sold 25,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.53, for a total value of $2,888,420.04. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 2,408,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $271,033,118.73. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.64, for a total transaction of $513,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 371,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,140,100.24. This trade represents a 1.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 198,304 shares of company stock valued at $20,847,452. Company insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Elastic Stock Performance

Elastic stock opened at $91.55 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 166.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Elastic has a 12-month low of $69.00 and a 12-month high of $123.96.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.48). Elastic had a negative return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 4.39%. The company had revenue of $382.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.85 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Elastic will post -0.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Elastic Company Profile

Elastic N.V., a data analytics company, delivers solutions designed to run in public or private clouds in multi-cloud environments. It primarily offers Elastic Stack, a set of software products that ingest and store data from various sources and formats, as well as performs search, analysis, and visualization on that data.