Man Group plc Purchases 241,519 Shares of Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Man Group plc grew its position in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 9,100.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 244,173 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 241,519 shares during the period. Man Group plc’s holdings in Elastic were worth $24,193,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ESTC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Elastic by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,352,108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $926,607,000 after buying an additional 168,483 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in shares of Elastic by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,429,756 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,820,000 after acquiring an additional 462,974 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Elastic by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,439,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,663,000 after acquiring an additional 45,076 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Elastic in the fourth quarter worth about $102,485,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of Elastic by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 884,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,626,000 after purchasing an additional 118,294 shares in the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Elastic Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of ESTC opened at $92.22 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average of $86.66 and a 200 day moving average of $97.06. The company has a market cap of $9.63 billion, a PE ratio of 167.67 and a beta of 1.20. Elastic has a 52-week low of $69.00 and a 52-week high of $123.96.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 18,735 shares of the firm’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $34,183,165.07. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Shay Banon sold 2,683 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.78, for a total transaction of $243,562.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 4,535,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $411,728,695.68. This trade represents a 0.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 198,304 shares of company stock valued at $20,847,452 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on ESTC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Elastic in a research note on Friday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Elastic from $145.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Elastic from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Elastic from $140.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on Elastic from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $127.48.

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.