Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Stock

Key Points

• Citigroup raised its price target on Elastic to $132 from $128 and maintained a Buy rating, implying 50.18% upside from the prior close.
• Elastic beat quarterly expectations, reporting adjusted earnings of $0.70 per share versus $0.58 expected and revenue of $478.1 million, up 15.2% year over year. Analysts overall rate the stock “Moderate Buy,” with an average target of $98.70.
• Company insiders sold about 4.6 million shares worth roughly $422.9 million over the past 90 days, including a director’s sale of 2 million shares.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at Citigroup from $128.00 to $132.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the stock. Citigroup's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 50.18% from the company's previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Elastic from $70.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Elastic in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Elastic in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Elastic from $106.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Elastic from $93.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $98.70.

Elastic Stock Performance

Shares of ESTC stock traded up $0.58 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $87.89. 217,931 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,100,960. Elastic has a 52 week low of $42.05 and a 52 week high of $108.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.45, a PEG ratio of 7.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $92.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 1.81.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.12. Elastic had a net margin of 20.84% and a negative return on equity of 0.35%. The firm had revenue of $478.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $469.75 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. The business's revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Elastic has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.290-3.370 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 0.800-0.820 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Elastic will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Elastic

In other Elastic news, Director Steven Schuurman sold 2,000,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.15, for a total transaction of $188,300,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,504,600 shares in the company, valued at $235,808,090. This trade represents a 44.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CRO Mark Dodds sold 10,000 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $925,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive directly owned 278,538 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,787,048.04. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 4,585,641 shares of company stock valued at $422,851,366 over the last ninety days. 12.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Elastic by 516.1% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,627,636 shares of the company's stock worth $131,356,000 after buying an additional 2,201,140 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Elastic during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $212,329,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Elastic by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 905,241 shares of the company's stock worth $51,617,000 after acquiring an additional 5,224 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its holdings in shares of Elastic by 78.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 752,434 shares of the company's stock worth $37,614,000 after acquiring an additional 331,625 shares during the period. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Elastic by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 735,330 shares of the company's stock worth $67,430,000 after acquiring an additional 138,249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company's stock.

About Elastic

Elastic N.V. develops software for search, observability and security. Its products help organizations search and analyze data, monitor applications and infrastructure, and detect and respond to cybersecurity threats. The company's offerings include the Elastic Stack—built around Elasticsearch and including Kibana, Logstash and Beats—as well as cloud-based services through Elastic Cloud. These tools can be used to work with data from a range of sources and support applications such as enterprise search, log analytics and security monitoring.

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