Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Decreases Position in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) by 17.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 82,219 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,767 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Confluent were worth $2,299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Confluent by 354.0% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Confluent in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Confluent by 85.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 1,136 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of Confluent by 22,112.5% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 3,538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in shares of Confluent by 48.4% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 4,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 1,613 shares during the period. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on CFLT. Bank of America boosted their price target on Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Confluent from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised Confluent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 68,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $2,476,320.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 520,273 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,849,490.79. This represents a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 2,178 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.58, for a total transaction of $68,781.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 177,415 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,602,765.70. The trade was a 1.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,200,746 shares of company stock valued at $38,505,150. 13.82% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Confluent Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $20.40 on Tuesday. Confluent, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.79 and a twelve month high of $37.90. The company has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.89 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $26.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.41.

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