West Tower Group LLC Makes New $224,000 Investment in Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

West Tower Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CFLT. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Confluent by 72.2% during the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,700,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,083,000 after buying an additional 4,486,841 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Confluent by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,513,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,224,000 after purchasing an additional 802,353 shares in the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at $20,061,000. Savant Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at $10,607,000. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Confluent in the 3rd quarter valued at $7,646,000. 78.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Confluent Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CFLT opened at $26.36 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.41 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.90. The company has a quick ratio of 4.24, a current ratio of 3.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.28). Confluent had a negative net margin of 35.81% and a negative return on equity of 34.70%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Rohan Sivaram sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.14, for a total value of $342,540.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 701,403 shares in the company, valued at $21,841,689.42. This trade represents a 1.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Kong Phan sold 3,947 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.74, for a total transaction of $113,436.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 179,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,171,446.86. This trade represents a 2.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,201,518 shares of company stock valued at $38,533,306 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Confluent in a report on Monday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Confluent from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Confluent from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Confluent has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.33.

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.