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

Key Points

• Stifel Nicolaus raised Elastic’s price target from $107 to $120 and maintained a “buy” rating, implying 25.86% upside from the prior close. The broader analyst consensus is “Moderate Buy,” with an average target of $97.92.
• Elastic exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.70 EPS versus $0.58 expected and revenue of $478.11 million, up 15.2% year over year.
• Insiders sold 2.59 million shares worth approximately $234.6 million over the past 90 days, including significant sales by the company’s CTO and a director.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $107.00 to $120.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus' target price suggests a potential upside of 25.86% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Elastic from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Elastic from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Elastic from $58.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Elastic from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $120.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Elastic from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $97.92.

Elastic Price Performance

Shares of ESTC opened at $95.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.71, a P/E/G ratio of 7.82 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $85.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.97. Elastic has a 1-year low of $42.05 and a 1-year high of $108.00.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.12. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 0.35% and a net margin of 20.84%.The firm had revenue of $478.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $469.75 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Elastic will post 0.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Elastic news, CTO Shay Banon sold 200,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.47, for a total transaction of $19,294,000.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,854,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $178,949,727.66. This trade represents a 9.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Steven Schuurman sold 1,500,000 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.13, for a total transaction of $135,195,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,504,600 shares in the company, valued at $405,999,598. This represents a 24.98% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,585,641 shares of company stock valued at $234,551,366 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Elastic

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Elastic by 4.6% during the second quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,027 shares of the company's stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Elastic by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,363 shares of the company's stock worth $218,000 after buying an additional 441 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Elastic in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Elastic by 61.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,470 shares of the company's stock valued at $135,000 after acquiring an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Elastic

Elastic N.V. NYSE: ESTC develops search, observability and security software for organizations that need to collect, analyze and act on large volumes of data. Its platform helps users search structured and unstructured information, monitor applications and infrastructure, detect security threats and build artificial intelligence-powered experiences.

The company's principal offerings include Elasticsearch, its distributed search and analytics engine; Kibana, a visualization and data exploration interface; and Elastic Cloud, a managed cloud service for deploying Elastic products.

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