Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Elastic N.V. $ESTC

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group cut its Elastic stake by 95.3% in the first quarter, selling 85,759 shares and retaining 4,196 shares valued at approximately $210,000. Institutional investors collectively own 97.03% of Elastic’s stock.
• Elastic exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.61 in EPS versus the $0.56 consensus estimate and revenue of $450.68 million, up 16% year over year. Shares opened at $65.80, while the analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy” with a $78.78 price target.
• Elastic insiders sold 110,099 shares worth approximately $6.67 million during the last quarter, primarily to cover tax obligations from vested equity awards.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC - Free Report) by 95.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,196 shares of the company's stock after selling 85,759 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Elastic were worth $210,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ESTC. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Elastic by 17.3% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,159 shares of the company's stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in Elastic by 0.6% in the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 28,323 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,393,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Elastic by 0.3% in 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. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Elastic by 11.6% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the company's stock worth $283,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Elastic news, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 40,373 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.61, for a total transaction of $2,447,007.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 628,752 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,108,658.72. This trade represents a 6.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CRO Mark Eugene Dodds sold 18,439 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.61, for a total transaction of $1,117,587.79. Following the sale, the executive owned 298,211 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,074,568.71. The trade was a 5.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 110,099 shares of company stock worth $6,673,100 in the last quarter. 12.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Elastic Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of ESTC stock opened at $65.80 on Friday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $60.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 1.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.84 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 14.89 and a beta of 1.00. Elastic N.V. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.05. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 1.82% and a net margin of 21.14%.The firm had revenue of $450.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $446.66 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Elastic has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.210-3.290 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.570-0.590 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Elastic N.V. will post 0.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESTC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Elastic from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of Elastic in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Elastic from $116.00 to $106.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped 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. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on shares of Elastic from $90.00 to $83.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $78.78.

About Elastic

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.

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