Great Lakes Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 717,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,061,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Confluent by 72.2% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,083,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Confluent by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,325,709 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,180,000 after acquiring an additional 107,510 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Confluent by 7.3% during the third quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 2,706,910 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,167,000 after acquiring an additional 184,865 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Confluent by 46.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,513,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,224,000 after acquiring an additional 802,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Confluent by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,355,491 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,860,000 after acquiring an additional 71,454 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CFLT. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Confluent in a report on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho raised their price target on Confluent from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Confluent from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.33.

Confluent Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $26.13 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $29.76 and its 200 day moving average is $26.71. Confluent, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.79 and a fifty-two week high of $37.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a PE ratio of -24.19 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 3.99.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative net margin of 35.81% and a negative return on equity of 34.70%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Confluent

In other Confluent news, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.36, for a total value of $6,826,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,285,047.68. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total value of $113,436.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 179,939 shares in the company, valued at $5,171,446.86. This trade represents a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,201,518 shares of company stock valued at $38,533,306 in the last quarter. 13.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.