Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) Position Lowered by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its position in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,864,986 shares of the company’s stock after selling 915,629 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 2.40% of Confluent worth $219,905,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Confluent by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 35,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $716,000 after acquiring an additional 7,705 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in shares of Confluent by 1,465.6% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 30,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,000 after purchasing an additional 28,360 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Confluent by 52.2% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 42,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $874,000 after buying an additional 14,725 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at about $68,000. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in shares of Confluent during the 3rd quarter valued at about $303,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Confluent

In other news, CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.33, for a total value of $7,516,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 452,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,628,937.04. This trade represents a 33.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michelangelo Volpi sold 25,000 shares of Confluent stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.22, for a total value of $905,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 292,079 shares in the company, valued at $10,579,101.38. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,200,746 shares of company stock worth $38,505,150. 13.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CFLT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Confluent from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Confluent from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Confluent from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.15.

Confluent Stock Performance

CFLT opened at $23.56 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.24, a current ratio of 3.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $7.87 billion, a PE ratio of -21.81 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.31. Confluent, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.79 and a fifty-two week high of $37.90.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative return on equity of 34.70% and a negative net margin of 35.81%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Confluent Company 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.