Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price target on Alignment Healthcare from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Alignment Healthcare from $17.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Alignment Healthcare from $18.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays raised Alignment Healthcare from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $13.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stephens raised Alignment Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.61.

Alignment Healthcare Price Performance

NASDAQ ALHC opened at $12.97 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.34. Alignment Healthcare has a 52-week low of $7.92 and a 52-week high of $21.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -46.32 and a beta of 1.16.

Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.14. Alignment Healthcare had a negative return on equity of 43.68% and a negative net margin of 1.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.13) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 49.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Alignment Healthcare will post -0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alignment Healthcare

In other Alignment Healthcare news, insider Andreas P. Wagner sold 19,399 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.26, for a total transaction of $296,028.74. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 204,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,114,184.50. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John E. Kao sold 180,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.41, for a total value of $2,413,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,553,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,827,071. This represents a 10.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,700,753 shares of company stock worth $269,911,757. 6.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alignment Healthcare

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Alignment Healthcare by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 55,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $775,000 after buying an additional 7,908 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Alignment Healthcare during the 2nd quarter worth $322,000. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in Alignment Healthcare by 504.4% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 29,340 shares of the company’s stock worth $411,000 after buying an additional 24,486 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Alignment Healthcare by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 563,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,895,000 after buying an additional 99,050 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Alignment Healthcare by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 652,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,267,000 after buying an additional 9,989 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.19% of the company’s stock.

Alignment Healthcare Company Profile

Alignment Healthcare, Inc, a tech-enabled Medicare advantage company, operates consumer-centric health care platform for seniors in the United States. It provides customized health care designed to meet the needs of a diverse array of seniors through its Medicare advantage plans. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Orange, California.