Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Cuts Stock Position in Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado cut its holdings in Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) by 3.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,308 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 721 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Splunk were worth $2,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in shares of Splunk by 104,016.8% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 20,487,055 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,173,472,000 after purchasing an additional 20,467,378 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA increased its position in shares of Splunk by 37.4% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 6,010,196 shares of the software company’s stock worth $576,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635,239 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Splunk by 12.3% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,753,569 shares of the software company’s stock worth $855,038,000 after purchasing an additional 628,288 shares in the last quarter. Starboard Value LP increased its position in shares of Splunk by 145.5% during the first quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 4,583,000 shares of the software company’s stock worth $439,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,716,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Splunk by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,302,775 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $198,246,000 after buying an additional 170,233 shares in the last quarter. 87.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SPLK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Daiwa Capital Markets cut Splunk from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Barclays upped their target price on Splunk from $130.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on Splunk from $116.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Capital One Financial cut Splunk from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $157.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, September 21st. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Splunk from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Christian Smith sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.27, for a total value of $219,405.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 104,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,292,235.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Christian Smith sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.27, for a total value of $219,405.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 104,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,292,235.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary Steele sold 9,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.08, for a total value of $1,152,768.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 154,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,573,734.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,962 shares of company stock worth $3,967,513 in the last quarter. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Splunk Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SPLK opened at $150.88 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $142.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.32. Splunk Inc. has a 1-year low of $72.17 and a 1-year high of $151.50. The company has a market cap of $25.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -457.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.41 and a beta of 1.09.

Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 22.78% and a negative net margin of 0.61%. The company had revenue of $910.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $889.29 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.94) EPS. Splunk’s revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Splunk Inc. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Splunk

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.