Russell Investments Group Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 843.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,448 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,917 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Elastic were worth $1,432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Elastic during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $102,485,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Elastic by 5,972.4% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 744,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,751,000 after buying an additional 732,100 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Elastic by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,429,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $339,820,000 after buying an additional 462,974 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Elastic by 592.1% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 366,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,274,000 after purchasing an additional 313,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Elastic by 256.3% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 341,524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,387,000 after purchasing an additional 245,680 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ESTC. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Elastic from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Elastic from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Elastic from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Elastic in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Elastic from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Elastic currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.48.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.64, for a total transaction of $513,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 371,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,140,100.24. This represents a 1.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Shay Banon sold 140,129 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.68, for a total transaction of $14,948,961.72. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 2,254,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $240,561,053.04. The trade was a 5.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 198,304 shares of company stock worth $20,847,452. Company insiders own 15.90% of the company’s stock.

Elastic Stock Performance

NYSE ESTC opened at $77.79 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.44 and a beta of 1.19. Elastic has a 1-year low of $69.00 and a 1-year high of $123.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $95.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.65.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.48). Elastic had a negative return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 4.39%. The business had revenue of $382.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.85 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Elastic will post -0.77 EPS for the current year.

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.