Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume Following Analyst Upgrade

Posted by Defense World Staff on Sep 23rd, 2023

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK – Get Free Report) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Friday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $130.00 to $157.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Approximately 1,584,905 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the previous session’s volume of 1,738,673 shares.The stock last traded at $144.91 and had previously closed at $144.43.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Splunk from $118.00 to $123.00 in a report on Thursday, May 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Splunk from $130.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Splunk from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Splunk from $110.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Splunk from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.21.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Splunk

Insider Activity at Splunk

In other news, Director Elisa Steele sold 288 shares of Splunk stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.64, for a total transaction of $30,424.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,792,710.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Gary Steele sold 9,600 shares of Splunk stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.08, for a total transaction of $1,152,768.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 154,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,573,734.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Elisa Steele sold 288 shares of Splunk stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.64, for a total transaction of $30,424.32. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,792,710.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,846 shares of company stock worth $3,544,138 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Splunk by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 5,114 shares of the software company’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its holdings in Splunk by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 4,650 shares of the software company’s stock worth $493,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lifted its holdings in Splunk by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 3,062 shares of the software company’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Splunk in the 2nd quarter valued at about $710,000. Finally, Stansberry Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Splunk by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC now owns 13,759 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,460,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. 87.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Splunk Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $24.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -439.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $111.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.22.

Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 23rd. The software company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.25. Splunk had a negative net margin of 0.61% and a negative return on equity of 22.78%. The firm had revenue of $910.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $889.29 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.94) earnings per share. Splunk’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Splunk Inc. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Splunk

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Splunk Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets cloud services and licensed software solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers unified security and observability platform, including Splunk Security that helps security leaders fortify their organization's digital resilience by mitigating cyber risk and meeting compliance requirements; and Splunk Observability, which provides visibility across the full stack of infrastructure, applications, and the digital customer experience.