Confluent’s (CFLT) “Equal Weight” Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reaffirmed their equal weight rating on shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) in a research report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $30.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of $33.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on CFLT. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Confluent from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Confluent from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.37.

Confluent Stock Performance

Shares of Confluent stock opened at $26.70 on Thursday. Confluent has a 52 week low of $17.79 and a 52 week high of $35.07. The company has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a PE ratio of -24.05 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.94. The company has a quick ratio of 4.24, a current ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Confluent news, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total transaction of $113,436.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 179,939 shares in the company, valued at $5,171,446.86. This trade represents a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Erica Schultz sold 63,729 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total transaction of $1,746,174.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 687,483 shares in the company, valued at $18,837,034.20. This represents a 8.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,584,712 shares of company stock worth $132,928,936. 13.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Confluent by 72.2% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,083,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Confluent by 28.4% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 7,617,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,684,100 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp acquired a new position in shares of Confluent in the third quarter valued at approximately $21,127,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Confluent by 46.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,513,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,224,000 after purchasing an additional 802,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $7,646,000. 78.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.