Needham & Company LLC Boosts Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Price Target to $40.00

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) had its price target lifted by analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $31.00 to $40.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 32.89% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Confluent from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Confluent from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Confluent currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.89.

Confluent Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $30.10 on Wednesday. Confluent has a 52 week low of $17.79 and a 52 week high of $35.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.12 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.28. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.05% and a negative net margin of 38.35%. On average, analysts expect that Confluent will post -0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 13,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total value of $378,677.22. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 483,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,646,184.39. This represents a 2.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Erica Schultz sold 9,467 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total transaction of $267,253.41. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 678,016 shares in the company, valued at $19,140,391.68. This trade represents a 1.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,508,636 shares of company stock worth $47,198,798 in the last 90 days. 13.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CFLT. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Confluent by 354.0% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Confluent during the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Confluent during the third quarter worth $68,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Confluent by 85.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in Confluent by 22,112.5% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 3,538 shares during the period. 78.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.