Edward Jay Kreps Sells 270,207 Shares of Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) Stock

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold 270,207 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.70, for a total value of $8,295,354.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 301,660 shares in the company, valued at $9,260,962. The trade was a 47.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Edward Jay Kreps also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 15th, Edward Jay Kreps sold 232,500 shares of Confluent stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.10, for a total transaction of $6,998,250.00.
• On Friday, December 12th, Edward Jay Kreps sold 506,000 shares of Confluent stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.04, for a total transaction of $15,200,240.00.

Confluent Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of CFLT opened at $30.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $10.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.63 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 3.83 and a current ratio of 3.83. Confluent, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.64 and a 52 week high of $33.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.77.

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.02. Confluent had a negative net margin of 25.31% and a negative return on equity of 22.66%. The firm had revenue of $314.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $308.03 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Confluent, Inc. will post -0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CFLT has been the subject of a number of research reports. New Street Research set a $29.00 target price on Confluent in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Confluent from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Confluent from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Confluent in a report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Confluent from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Confluent has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.71.

More Confluent News

Here are the key news stories impacting Confluent this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major institutional inflows — large new stakes from HBK, Norges Bank, Jericho and AQR suggest strong institutional demand and provide a potential floor under the stock. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: IBM / takeover narrative referenced in recent coverage (IBM’s strategic tie/coverage cites the prior ~$11B IBM/Confluent deal), which supports a takeover-premium / strategic-exit thesis for shareholders. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product/partner momentum — coverage of Confluent’s “Sell With Confluent” partner program and TAM capture reinforces the growth story for event-streaming and cloud data platforms. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst consensus remains an average “Hold” with a consensus price target near $28.7, so Street expectations are mixed rather than uniformly bullish or bearish. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data reported for February appears to contain errors (zero / NaN values), so there’s no reliable short-position signal from the latest release.
• Negative Sentiment: Large, high-profile insider selling — CEO Edward Jay Kreps sold ~270,207 shares (~47% reduction), a sizeable liquidity event that typically weighs on sentiment and can trigger short-term selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple other executive trims — CFO Rohan Sivaram, CRO Ban Ryan Norris Mac (multiple filings) and CAO Kong Phan also sold shares (Kong Phan sale detailed separately), increasing the overall impression of insider distribution. Read More. • Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Specific insider sale: CAO Kong Phan sold 2,277 shares at ~$30.70 (disclosed). Small by dollar amount but adds to the cumulative insider selling narrative. Read More.

Institutional Trading of Confluent

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Community Bank acquired a new position in Confluent during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Confluent in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Confluent during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new stake in shares of Confluent during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Confluent during the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.09% of the company’s stock.

Confluent Company Profile

Confluent, Inc (NASDAQ: CFLT) is a leading provider of an event streaming platform built on Apache Kafka. The company’s flagship offerings include Confluent Platform—a self-managed software solution—and Confluent Cloud, a fully managed service designed to simplify real-time data processing across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. These products enable enterprises to collect, process and distribute high volumes of data in real time, supporting use cases such as fraud detection, supply chain optimization and personalized customer experiences.

Founded in 2014 by Apache Kafka co-creators Jay Kreps, Neha Narkhede and Jun Rao, Confluent has driven the commercialization of Kafka technologies and extended the platform with tools for data integration, stream processing and enterprise-grade security.