Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,990,000 shares, an increase of 19.5% from the April 15th total of 3,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,320,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ESTC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Elastic from $93.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Elastic from $105.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Scotiabank cut their target price on Elastic from $185.00 to $154.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. TheStreet upgraded Elastic from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Elastic from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Elastic presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.26.

Elastic Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ESTC traded down $0.10 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $111.13. The company had a trading volume of 330,672 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,293,698. Elastic has a 12 month low of $57.38 and a 12 month high of $136.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market cap of $11.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 241.80 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.22.

Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported ($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.28) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $327.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $320.48 million. Elastic had a negative return on equity of 23.94% and a net margin of 4.63%. As a group, analysts predict that Elastic will post -1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Janesh Moorjani sold 5,515 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.28, for a total transaction of $569,589.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 156,797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,193,994.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Steven Schuurman sold 815,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.54, for a total transaction of $79,495,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,382,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $817,580,280. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Janesh Moorjani sold 5,515 shares of Elastic stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.28, for a total value of $569,589.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 156,797 shares in the company, valued at $16,193,994.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 962,440 shares of company stock valued at $94,535,764 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elastic

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESTC. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Elastic by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Elastic by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $186,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Elastic by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 34,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,775,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Elastic during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Elastic by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,924 shares of the company’s stock worth $555,000 after buying an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

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.