Lazard Asset Management LLC Grows Position in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)

Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) by 32.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 23,198 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,694 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Elastic were worth $2,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its position in Elastic by 56.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 153,155 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,757,000 after purchasing an additional 55,084 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Elastic by 3,442.7% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,439,000 after purchasing an additional 14,115 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Elastic in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,293,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Elastic during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Elastic during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. 97.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Elastic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESTC opened at $92.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $86.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.25. Elastic has a 52 week low of $69.00 and a 52 week high of $123.96. The stock has a market cap of $9.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 167.73 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Shay Banon sold 2,683 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.78, for a total transaction of $243,562.74. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 4,535,456 shares in the company, valued at $411,728,695.68. This trade represents a 0.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni sold 18,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.77, for a total value of $1,700,575.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 376,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,183,165.07. The trade was a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 198,304 shares of company stock worth $20,847,452 over the last three months. 15.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Elastic from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Elastic from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Elastic from $125.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Elastic from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Elastic from $130.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $126.87.

Elastic Company Profile

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.