Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 7,900 Shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lessened its stake in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) by 11.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 59,792 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,900 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Confluent were worth $1,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Confluent by 72.2% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,083,000 after purchasing an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp acquired a new position in Confluent in the third quarter worth about $21,127,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in Confluent by 46.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,513,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,224,000 after purchasing an additional 802,353 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new position in Confluent in the fourth quarter worth about $10,607,000. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Confluent in the third quarter worth about $7,646,000. Institutional investors own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on CFLT. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $23.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total value of $113,436.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 179,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,171,446.86. This represents a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total transaction of $2,476,320.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 520,273 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,849,490.79. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,394,730 shares of company stock worth $45,827,255 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of CFLT stock opened at $30.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 3.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.84 and its 200-day moving average is $26.17. The stock has a market cap of $9.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -28.19 and a beta of 0.92. Confluent, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.79 and a 52-week high of $37.90.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative net margin of 35.81% and a negative return on equity of 34.70%. Sell-side analysts predict that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 EPS for the current 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.