Traders Buy Large Volume of Confluent Put Options (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 14,014 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 49% compared to the typical volume of 9,415 put options.

Confluent Price Performance

CFLT opened at $26.13 on Thursday. Confluent has a one year low of $17.79 and a one year high of $37.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 3.99 and a quick ratio of 4.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.19 and a beta of 0.89.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative net margin of 35.81% and a negative return on equity of 34.70%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Confluent will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total transaction of $2,476,320.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 520,273 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,849,490.79. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $13,285,047.68. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,201,518 shares of company stock worth $38,533,306. Corporate insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Confluent

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CFLT. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Confluent by 307.7% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 16,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $340,000 after buying an additional 12,605 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 75,257.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 36,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $753,000 after buying an additional 36,876 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 92,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,886,000 after buying an additional 12,779 shares during the period. Pathway Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Confluent during the 3rd quarter worth about $918,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 30,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $621,000 after buying an additional 1,938 shares during the period. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CFLT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their target price on Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Confluent from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Confluent in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. One investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Confluent presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.33.

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.