Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Holdings in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) by 90.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,880 shares of the company’s stock after selling 194,584 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Confluent were worth $426,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in Confluent by 125.0% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 859 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,167 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Confluent by 24.6% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,157,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,319,000 after purchasing an additional 228,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Confluent in the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,376,000. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total transaction of $4,647,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,045,235.12. This represents a 33.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Matthew Craig Miller sold 1,084,259 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.90, for a total transaction of $31,335,085.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,425,457 shares of company stock valued at $93,622,927 in the last quarter. 13.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CFLT has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Confluent from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Confluent from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down previously from $36.00) on shares of Confluent in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Confluent from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Confluent from $33.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Confluent currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.88.

Confluent Price Performance

CFLT stock opened at $31.52 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $23.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.57. The firm has a market cap of $10.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.40 and a beta of 0.82. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.79 and a 1 year high of $35.07.

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

Confluent 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.