CFLT - Confluent stock gains 17% on impressive earnings amid strength in cloud sales execution

Confluent ( NASDAQ: CFLT ) stock gained 17.3% on Thursday as the data streaming firm reported strong Q3 results and issued FY22 outlook topping Street expectations, helped by continued strength in cloud and sustained sales execution.

Bank of America cut its price target to $30 from $36 (33.9% potential upside to last close) on multiple compression across the group and reiterated its Neutral rating pending better visibility for breakeven margin.

"Q3 results point to sustained execution and momentum in large accounts from departmental expansion of real-time streaming apps running on Confluent/Kafka. However, still lagging profitability is likely to weigh on sentiment near term," analyst Brad Sills wrote in a note to clients.

Meanwhile, Cowen reiterated its $39 PT (potential upside of 74%) and Outperform rating. "Overall, demand for modernizing IT stacks with data streaming infrastructure remains high, cloud adoption is inflecting and sales execution is running at high levels," said analyst Derrick Wood, adding that FY23 guidance is a "conservative start with ample upside levers".

Other PT changes include Credit Suisse (cut to $55 from $65; 145.5% potential upside), Barclays (cut to $27 from $30; 20.5% potential upside) and D.A. Davidson (cut to $33 from $44; 47.3% potential upside).

Wall Street analysts on average are bullish on Confluent ( CFLT ), in line with SA Quant's Buy rating .

Shares of Confluent ( CFLT ) dropped ~64% YTD.

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