Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,010,000 shares, a decrease of 11.2% from the October 15th total of 3,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 3.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Paul R. Auvil III acquired 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $74.25 per share, with a total value of $1,485,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 22,627 shares in the company, valued at $1,680,054.75. This trade represents a 761.32 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Shay Banon sold 2,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total value of $187,286.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 4,543,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $319,159,097.50. The trade was a 0.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,406 shares of company stock valued at $2,627,772 over the last quarter. 15.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ESTC. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in Elastic by 1,333.3% in the second quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the period. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Elastic in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Elastic in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new position in Elastic in the second quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Elastic by 44.1% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 389 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Elastic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ESTC traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $86.06. The company had a trading volume of 1,229,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,274,417. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 158.16 and a beta of 0.94. Elastic has a twelve month low of $69.00 and a twelve month high of $136.06.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $347.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $344.67 million. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 17.54% and a net margin of 4.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.35) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Elastic will post -0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on ESTC. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Elastic in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $100.00 price objective on the stock. Baird R W cut Elastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $136.00 price objective on shares of Elastic in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Elastic from $100.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Bank of America cut Elastic from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $94.00 in a report on Friday, August 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $104.19.

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.