Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,390,000 shares, a decline of 9.8% from the September 30th total of 3,760,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,320,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ESTC shares. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Elastic from $110.00 to $80.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Elastic from $120.00 to $98.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Elastic in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Elastic from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $94.00 in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Baird R W cut Elastic from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $103.71.

Elastic Price Performance

Elastic stock remained flat at $80.98 during trading hours on Wednesday. 690,556 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,292,248. The stock has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 152.79 and a beta of 0.94. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $81.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Elastic has a 1-year low of $69.00 and a 1-year high of $136.06.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $347.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $344.67 million. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 17.54% and a net margin of 4.62%. Elastic's revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.35) EPS. Research analysts predict that Elastic will post -0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Elastic

In other news, CTO Shay Banon sold 2,666 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total transaction of $187,286.50. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 4,543,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $319,159,097.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CTO Shay Banon sold 2,666 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.25, for a total transaction of $187,286.50. Following 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 0.00 % 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, Director Paul R. Auvil III purchased 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $74.25 per share, with a total value of $1,485,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,627 shares in the company, valued at $1,680,054.75. This trade represents a 700.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,406 shares of company stock worth $2,627,772 over the last ninety days. 18.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Elastic

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in Elastic by 30.8% in the first quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,156,726 shares of the company's stock worth $1,018,110,000 after purchasing an additional 2,392,356 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Elastic during the 2nd quarter valued at $248,335,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the 2nd quarter worth about $102,169,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Elastic by 32,630.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 615,655 shares of the company's stock worth $70,129,000 after acquiring an additional 613,774 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neumann Advisory Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Elastic during the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,078,000. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.