Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $38.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on CFLT. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of Confluent from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Confluent in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $31.04.

Confluent Stock Down 17.5 %

CFLT stock opened at $20.63 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 5.07 and a quick ratio of 5.07. Confluent has a 52-week low of $14.69 and a 52-week high of $38.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $26.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.50 and a beta of 0.91.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.28) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by ($0.04). Confluent had a negative net margin of 46.73% and a negative return on equity of 40.55%. The firm had revenue of $217.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.57 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Confluent will post -0.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Ying Christina Liu sold 68,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.06, for a total transaction of $2,112,080.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 168,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,228,578.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Ying Christina Liu sold 68,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.06, for a total transaction of $2,112,080.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 168,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,228,578.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lara Caimi sold 9,375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $290,625.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,399 shares in the company, valued at $167,369. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 632,725 shares of company stock valued at $18,138,428 over the last three months. 13.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CFLT. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in Confluent in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Confluent in the second quarter valued at approximately $68,000. 78.09% of the stock is owned by 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.