Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 17,330,000 shares, a decline of 13.6% from the October 15th total of 20,060,000 shares. Approximately 7.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,790,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CFLT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Confluent to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Confluent from $38.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America cut their price target on Confluent from $32.00 to $26.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Confluent in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Confluent presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.88.

Confluent Price Performance

Shares of Confluent stock traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $27.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,372,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,365,969. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $22.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 4.24. Confluent has a 12-month low of $17.79 and a 12-month high of $35.07. The company has a market cap of $9.02 billion, a PE ratio of -24.83 and a beta of 0.82.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $250.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.98 million. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.05% and a negative net margin of 38.35%. Analysts expect that Confluent will post -0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Confluent

In related news, CTO Chad Verbowski sold 13,540 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.68, for a total transaction of $293,547.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 496,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,770,775.76. The trade was a 2.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total value of $4,647,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares in the company, valued at $9,045,235.12. This trade represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,358,654 shares of company stock worth $91,463,207. 13.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Confluent

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CFLT. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the second quarter valued at about $68,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Confluent in the third quarter valued at about $68,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Confluent by 125.0% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Confluent by 40.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 859 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Confluent by 25.5% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Company Profile

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.