Confluent price target raised to $40 from $31 at Needham

Needham raised the firm’s price target on Confluent (CFLT) to $40 from $31 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after its Q4 earnings beat. The company cleared the bar with solid results, followed by an in-line guide for 2025, which is a positive in the context of how “tight” the sell-side model looked, the analyst tells investors in a research note. A separate announcement detailing an expanded Databricks partnership takes back the narrative, and the stock’s positive after-hours response reflects “a sigh of relief” in relation to rumors of Snowflake (SNOW) assessing a Redpanda acquisition, the firm added.