Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Receives “Equal Weight” Rating from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reissued their equal weight rating on shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) in a report issued on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $30.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $33.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Confluent to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Confluent from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Confluent from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Confluent has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.37.

Confluent Price Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $26.74 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $29.64 and a 200-day moving average of $24.96. The company has a market capitalization of $8.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.09 and a beta of 0.91. Confluent has a 52 week low of $17.79 and a 52 week high of $35.07. 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 quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $250.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.98 million. Confluent had a negative net margin of 38.35% and a negative return on equity of 34.05%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Confluent will post -0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michelangelo Volpi sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total value of $1,296,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 280,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,262,784. This trade represents a 15.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 13,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total transaction of $378,677.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 483,393 shares in the company, valued at $13,646,184.39. This trade represents a 2.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,584,712 shares of company stock valued at $132,928,936. 13.82% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Diversified Trust Co boosted its stake in Confluent by 110.3% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 60,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,233,000 after acquiring an additional 31,729 shares during the last quarter. Sycomore Asset Management boosted its stake in Confluent by 308.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 333,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,176,000 after acquiring an additional 251,507 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in Confluent by 1,465.6% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 30,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 28,360 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Capital Management LP bought a new position in Confluent during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $918,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Confluent by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,284,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,549,000 after acquiring an additional 64,926 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

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.