Note: This article is based on publicly disclosed SEC filings, analyst reports, and market data reported in late 2019. All figures reflect conditions at that time and should not be used for current investment decisions.
Institutional Investors Increase Stakes in Splunk
IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its position in Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) by 40.2% during the third quarter of 2019, according to the firm’s most recent disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After purchasing an additional 4,541 shares during the quarter, IFM Investors held a total of 15,851 shares of the software company, valued at approximately $1,868,000 at the time of the filing.
Several other institutional investors also established new positions in Splunk during this period:
- Parkside Financial Bank & Trust – acquired a new stake in Q2 2019, valued at approximately $25,000.
- Motco – acquired a new stake in Q2 2019, valued at approximately $27,000.
- Quest Capital Management Inc. ADV – acquired a new stake in Q3 2019, valued at approximately $27,000.
- HM Payson & Co. – acquired a new stake in Q2 2019, valued at approximately $28,000.
- Manchester Financial Inc. – acquired a new stake in Q2 2019, valued at approximately $29,000.
In aggregate, institutional investors and hedge funds held approximately 93.49% of Splunk’s outstanding stock at this time, reflecting strong institutional confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.
Analyst Ratings and Price Targets
Wall Street analysts were broadly bullish on Splunk heading into the end of 2019. A summary of notable analyst actions reported around this period:
- JMP Securities raised its price target from $135.00 to $155.00, maintaining an Outperform rating.
- Mizuho raised its price target from $155.00 to $160.00, maintaining a Buy rating (report dated November 22, 2019).
- UBS Group set a $150.00 price target with a Buy rating (report dated September 26, 2019).
- Piper Jaffray Companies initiated coverage on November 8, 2019, with an Overweight rating and a $160.00 price objective.
- Zacks Investment Research downgraded Splunk from Buy to Hold, setting a $119.00 price target (October 17, 2019).
Across all tracked analysts at the time, one had a sell rating, six held a hold rating, and twenty-seven had assigned a buy rating to the stock. The consensus rating was Buy, with a consensus price target of approximately $154.59.
SPLK Stock and Key Market Metrics
As of the trading session referenced in the source data, SPLK stock traded at $149.22, down $1.78 on the day, with volume of approximately 1,139,437 shares versus an average of 2,438,874. Key market metrics at that time included:
- Market Capitalization: $22.33 billion
- P/E Ratio: -93.85 (negative, reflecting net losses)
- Beta: 2.03
- 52-Week Low / High: $90.08 / $151.26
- Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.30
- Current Ratio: 3.06
- Quick Ratio: 3.06
- 50-Day Moving Average: $124.01
- 200-Day Moving Average: $123.75
Q3 2019 Earnings Results
Splunk reported its fiscal Q3 2019 earnings on November 21, 2019. Highlights included:
- EPS: $0.58, beating the analyst consensus of $0.54 by $0.04.
- Revenue: $626.00 million, ahead of analyst estimates of $605.20 million.
- Year-over-Year Revenue Growth: 30.1%
- Return on Equity: -11.72% (negative)
- Net Margin: -14.24% (negative)
- Prior Year EPS (same quarter): $0.38
Despite strong top-line growth, Splunk remained unprofitable on a GAAP basis, consistent with its strategy of investing heavily in sales, marketing, and R&D to capture the rapidly growing data analytics and security markets. Analysts projected full-year EPS of approximately -$0.86 for the fiscal year.
Insider Trading Activity
Two senior Splunk executives sold shares in September 2019, as disclosed in SEC filings:
- SVP Timothy Tully sold 4,391 shares on September 12, 2019, at an average price of $115.21, for a total transaction value of approximately $505,887.
- CEO Douglas Merritt sold 13,341 shares on September 12, 2019, at an average price of $115.20, for a total transaction value of approximately $1,536,883.
In the 90 days preceding the report, insiders sold a combined 26,906 shares worth approximately $3,187,086. Company insiders collectively owned approximately 0.34% of outstanding stock.
About Splunk
Splunk, Inc. is an enterprise software company specializing in data analytics, security, and observability. Its product portfolio — including Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Cloud, and Splunk Light — enables organizations to ingest, search, analyze, and visualize machine-generated data at scale. Core use cases span IT operations monitoring, security information and event management (SIEM), IoT analytics, application performance monitoring (APM), and business intelligence. The company is widely used across DevOps and security engineering teams for log aggregation, real-time alerting, and incident response workflows.
Source data attributed to slatersentinel.com. All financial figures reflect reported conditions as of late November / early December 2019.