Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) Short Interest Down 14.6% in December

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,850,000 shares, a decline of 14.6% from the December 15th total of 13,880,000 shares. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Insider Transactions at Confluent

In other news, insider Erica Schultz sold 63,729 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.40, for a total transaction of $1,746,174.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 687,483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,837,034.20. The trade was a 8.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 2,096 shares of the firm’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 $59,170.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 190,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,382,896.40. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,584,712 shares of company stock worth $132,928,936 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,093,000. Jackson Square Capital LLC acquired a new position in Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $389,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Confluent during the fourth quarter valued at $758,000. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Confluent during the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Confluent by 21.5% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 73,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 13,026 shares during the last quarter. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on CFLT. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho increased their target price on Confluent from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Confluent in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Confluent from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.37.

Confluent Stock Performance

Confluent stock opened at $26.70 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.24, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Confluent has a 12-month low of $17.79 and a 12-month high of $35.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $29.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.94.

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

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.