Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at William Blair

Key Points

• William Blair initiated coverage on Elastic with an “outperform” rating, adding to a mixed but generally positive Wall Street view of the stock.
• Several other analysts recently cut their price targets on Elastic, though most still maintain bullish ratings. The consensus among analysts is now a “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $89.80.
• Elastic’s latest quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $0.73 versus $0.64 expected and revenue up 17.7% year over year, even as insiders sold shares and the stock traded around $55.07 on Friday.

Equities researchers at William Blair started coverage on shares of Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Friday. The brokerage set an "outperform" rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup decreased their target price on Elastic from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Elastic from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Elastic from $80.00 to $65.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Elastic from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Elastic from $80.00 to $70.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $89.80.

Elastic Price Performance

ESTC stock traded up $1.23 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $55.07. 136,926 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,983,907. The stock has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.80, a PEG ratio of 69.73 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $49.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.00. Elastic has a fifty-two week low of $42.05 and a fifty-two week high of $96.07.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $449.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $438.37 million. Elastic had a negative net margin of 5.04% and a negative return on equity of 2.34%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. Elastic has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.500-2.540 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.550-0.570 EPS. Research analysts predict that Elastic will post 0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Elastic

In related news, insider Carolyn Herzog sold 3,989 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.28, for a total value of $208,544.92. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 85,335 shares in the company, valued at $4,461,313.80. This trade represents a 4.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Shay Banon sold 4,283 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.28, for a total transaction of $223,915.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 4,354,945 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,676,524.60. This trade represents a 0.10% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 38,188 shares of company stock valued at $1,996,469 over the last three months. 12.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elastic

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in Elastic by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 8,593 shares of the company's stock valued at $726,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Elastic by 17.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,159 shares of the company's stock worth $98,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in Elastic by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 28,323 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,393,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Elastic by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,020 shares of the company's stock valued at $260,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Elastic by 0.3% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 83,403 shares of the company's stock worth $7,033,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Elastic Company Profile

Elastic N.V. operates as a search and analytics company, offering a suite of open source and subscription-based solutions for search, observability and security use cases. Its flagship product, Elasticsearch, enables fast and scalable full-text search and analytics across large volumes of structured and unstructured data. Complementary tools such as Kibana provide visualization capabilities, while Beats and Logstash serve as lightweight data shippers and data processing pipelines, respectively.

The company was founded in 2012 by Shay Banon, who serves as chief technology officer, and Steven Schuurman.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.