Marshall Wace LLP Increases Holdings in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 554.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 641,041 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 543,155 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in Elastic were worth $63,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ESTC. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Elastic in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Elastic by 793.3% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Elastic by 126.4% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Elastic by 1,065.2% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ESTC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Elastic from $115.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Elastic from $145.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Elastic from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Elastic from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Elastic from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 18,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.77, for a total value of $1,700,575.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 376,591 shares in the company, valued at $34,183,165.07. The trade was a 4.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Shay Banon sold 25,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.53, for a total transaction of $2,888,420.04. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 2,408,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $271,033,118.73. This trade represents a 1.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 198,304 shares of company stock worth $20,847,452. Company insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Elastic Price Performance

ESTC opened at $77.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.12 billion, a PE ratio of 141.44 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $95.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $96.35. Elastic has a 52-week low of $69.00 and a 52-week high of $123.96.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.48). Elastic had a negative return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 4.39%. The company had revenue of $382.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.85 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Elastic will post -0.77 EPS for the current year.

About Elastic

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.