Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 7,702 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 66% compared to the average volume of 4,628 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Ying Christina Liu sold 68,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.06, for a total transaction of $2,112,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 168,338 shares in the company, valued at $5,228,578.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Confluent news, CAO Ying Christina Liu sold 68,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.06, for a total value of $2,112,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 168,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,228,578.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Stephanie Buscemi sold 3,794 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.96, for a total value of $121,256.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 165,539 shares in the company, valued at $5,290,626.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 632,725 shares of company stock worth $18,138,428 over the last 90 days. 13.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CFLT. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in Confluent during the first quarter worth $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Confluent during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Confluent during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Confluent during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Confluent by 125.0% during the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Trading Down 1.8 %

CFLT stock traded down $0.51 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $28.58. 1,335,912 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,450,257. Confluent has a one year low of $14.69 and a one year high of $41.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 5.07 and a current ratio of 5.07. The company has a market cap of $9.08 billion, a PE ratio of -23.27 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.17.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $217.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.57 million. Confluent had a negative return on equity of 40.55% and a negative net margin of 46.73%. Research analysts predict that Confluent will post -0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group raised Confluent from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Confluent from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of Confluent in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Confluent in a research report on Friday, May 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.93.

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.