Vanguard Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 24,828,562 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 599,582 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.08% of Confluent worth $694,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CFLT. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 354.0% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Confluent in the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Confluent during the 3rd quarter valued at $68,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Confluent by 85.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC boosted its position in Confluent by 22,112.5% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 3,538 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.86, for a total transaction of $85,280.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 246,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,621,419.76. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.33, for a total transaction of $7,516,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,628,937.04. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,200,746 shares of company stock worth $38,505,150 in the last three months. 13.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Confluent Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $24.33 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.25. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.79 and a 52-week high of $37.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.13 billion, a PE ratio of -22.53 and a beta of 0.90.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) EPS 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%. Analysts forecast that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Confluent from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group raised Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Confluent from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.33.

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.