Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Shares Up 8% – Time to Buy?

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)’s share price shot up 8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $30.64 and last traded at $31.25. 922,093 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 3,196,098 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.93.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CFLT shares. Truist Financial upped their target price on Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.37.

Confluent Trading Up 7.7 %

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.93. The firm has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a PE ratio of -28.14 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 4.24.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total value of $113,436.78. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 179,939 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,171,446.86. The trade was a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Stephanie Buscemi sold 164,123 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total value of $4,306,587.52. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 149,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,926,658.56. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 4,584,712 shares of company stock valued at $132,928,936. 13.82% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Confluent by 72.2% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,083,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in Confluent during the third quarter valued at $21,127,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Confluent by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,513,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,224,000 after buying an additional 802,353 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Confluent during the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,646,000. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP boosted its stake in Confluent by 1,325.2% during the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 281,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,729,000 after acquiring an additional 261,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.