Confluent Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 11,965 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 80% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,663 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 5,963 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.15, for a total transaction of $191,710.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 404,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,001,845.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 5,963 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.15, for a total transaction of $191,710.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 404,412 shares in the company, valued at $13,001,845.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lara Caimi sold 46,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.90, for a total value of $1,495,312.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $172,228.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,433,170 shares of company stock valued at $46,438,029 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Confluent

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Confluent by 14.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,824,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,230,000 after buying an additional 470,002 shares during the last quarter. KADENSA CAPITAL Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at $11,512,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Confluent by 18,649.2% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 12,122 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Confluent by 45.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,044,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,939,000 after purchasing an additional 327,940 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Confluent by 13.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,424,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $545,546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,843 shares during the last quarter. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CFLT shares. Canaccord Genuity Group raised Confluent from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $38.00 target price on shares of Confluent in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Confluent from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Confluent from $22.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.72.

Confluent Stock Up 7.4 %

Shares of CFLT stock traded up $2.06 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $29.89. The stock had a trading volume of 4,960,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,773,730. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 4.62 and a quick ratio of 4.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.35 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $30.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.24. Confluent has a 12-month low of $14.69 and a 12-month high of $41.22.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by ($0.01). Confluent had a negative return on equity of 44.16% and a negative net margin of 56.99%. The firm had revenue of $213.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $204.62 million. On average, analysts predict that Confluent will post -0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.