Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Hold Rating for Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Key Points

• Needham & Company LLC has reaffirmed a hold rating for Elastic (NYSE:ESTC), reflecting a cautious outlook on the stock.
• UBS Group has upgraded Elastic's target price from $95.00 to $125.00 and assigned a buy rating, while other analysts also maintain varying buy and hold ratings.
• Elastic's Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program, which typically indicates that the management believes the stock is undervalued.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group upped their target price on Elastic from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Elastic in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Elastic in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $90.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research cut Elastic from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $90.00 target price on Elastic and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $118.60.

Elastic Price Performance

NYSE:ESTC opened at $81.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $83.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -101.84 and a beta of 1.05. Elastic has a 12-month low of $70.14 and a 12-month high of $118.84.

Elastic announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, October 9th that allows the company to buyback $0.00 in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Carolyn Herzog sold 5,143 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.12, for a total value of $463,487.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 94,677 shares in the company, valued at $8,532,291.24. This trade represents a 5.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.12, for a total value of $440,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 452,314 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,857,909.68. This represents a 1.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 350,792 shares of company stock worth $30,978,369. 12.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Elastic

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Elastic by 4.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 22,005 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the first quarter worth $205,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of Elastic by 26.6% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 18,130 shares of the company's stock worth $1,615,000 after buying an additional 3,813 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Elastic by 3.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 429,526 shares of the company's stock worth $38,271,000 after buying an additional 12,510 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Elastic by 666.7% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,959 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,986,000 after purchasing an additional 48,660 shares during the period. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Elastic Company Profile

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.

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