Confluent's (CFLT) "Hold" Rating Reiterated at Stifel Nicolaus

Key Points

• Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) was downgraded by Stifel Nicolaus from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating, with a target price of $21.00, indicating a potential downside of 20.45% from its previous close.
• Various analysts have set mixed ratings on the stock, with one "sell", seven "hold", twenty "buy", and two "strong buy" ratings, resulting in an average target price of $30.04.
• Confluent's recent quarterly earnings report showed a revenue increase of 20.1% year-over-year, posting $282.29 million, and an EPS of $0.09, above analyst expectations.

Stifel Nicolaus reissued their hold rating on shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT - Free Report) in a research report report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a $21.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $30.00.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. DA Davidson cut their price target on Confluent from $42.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities cut their price target on Confluent from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Confluent from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $31.00 price target (up previously from $27.00) on shares of Confluent in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on Confluent from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.54.

Confluent Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of CFLT stock traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $17.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 19,531,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,039,751. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $24.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.37. Confluent has a fifty-two week low of $16.56 and a fifty-two week high of $37.90. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 4.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $282.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $278.32 million. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 27.34% and a negative net margin of 29.27%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Confluent will post -0.83 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michelangelo Volpi sold 25,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $625,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 267,079 shares in the company, valued at $6,676,975. The trade was a 8.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Neha Narkhede sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.82, for a total transaction of $456,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at $462,036.54. This trade represents a 49.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 486,669 shares of company stock worth $11,439,593. Company insiders own 9.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CFLT. New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its position in Confluent by 5.0% in the second quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 27,134 shares of the company's stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291 shares in the last quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC grew its position in Confluent by 29.0% in the second quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 414,272 shares of the company's stock worth $10,328,000 after acquiring an additional 93,235 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in Confluent by 1.6% in the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 86,022 shares of the company's stock worth $2,145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,338 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Confluent by 12.4% in the second quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 70,650 shares of the company's stock worth $1,761,000 after acquiring an additional 7,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Confluent in the second quarter worth $374,000. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.