Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at Zacks Research

Key Points

• Elastic's stock rating has been downgraded by Zacks Research from "strong-buy" to "hold," indicating a shift in analyst sentiment towards the stock.
• Analysts across multiple firms have revised their price targets for Elastic, with a consensus price target now set at $110.60.
• In the latest earnings report, Elastic posted an EPS of $0.47, exceeding expectations, while showing a year-over-year revenue growth of 15.9%.

Zacks Research cut shares of Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

ESTC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on Elastic from $109.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Elastic from $136.00 to $107.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Elastic from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Elastic from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $111.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on Elastic in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. They issued a "sector weight" rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Elastic presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $120.20.

Elastic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ESTC traded down $2.60 on Tuesday, reaching $85.19. 8,859,424 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,343,724. Elastic has a fifty-two week low of $69.00 and a fifty-two week high of $118.84. The company's 50 day moving average is $82.73 and its 200-day moving average is $87.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.05 billion, a PE ratio of -106.49 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $388.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.61 million. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 1.73% and a negative net margin of 5.38%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Elastic will post -0.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Shay Banon sold 5,117 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.91, for a total value of $444,718.47. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 4,560,291 shares in the company, valued at approximately $396,334,890.81. This trade represents a 0.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 22,901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.91, for a total transaction of $1,990,325.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 454,841 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,530,231.31. The trade was a 4.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,913 shares of company stock valued at $4,416,324 in the last quarter. Insiders own 15.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Elastic

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Elastic by 4.6% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 504,823 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,980,000 after purchasing an additional 22,005 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of Elastic by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,203 shares of the company's stock valued at $714,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Elastic in the 1st quarter valued at $205,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in shares of Elastic by 26.6% in the 1st quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 18,130 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,615,000 after buying an additional 3,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Elastic by 666.7% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,959 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,986,000 after buying an additional 48,660 shares in the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Elastic

Elastic N.V., a data analytics company, delivers solutions designed to run in public or private clouds in multi-cloud environments. It primarily offers Elastic Stack, a set of software products that ingest and store data from various sources and formats, as well as performs search, analysis, and visualization on that data.