Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC)

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $17.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Alignment Healthcare from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Alignment Healthcare in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector weight” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Alignment Healthcare from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $11.44.

Alignment Healthcare Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ALHC opened at $11.70 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.93 and its 200-day moving average is $10.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.60. The company has a market cap of $2.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.19 and a beta of 1.42. Alignment Healthcare has a 52-week low of $4.46 and a 52-week high of $14.25.

Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $692.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $662.11 million. Alignment Healthcare had a negative net margin of 5.84% and a negative return on equity of 108.69%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.19) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Alignment Healthcare will post -0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Dawn Christine Maroney sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total transaction of $323,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,726,097 shares in the company, valued at $18,590,064.69. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Sebastian Burzacchi sold 8,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.26, for a total transaction of $96,273.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 217,395 shares in the company, valued at $2,447,867.70. The trade was a 3.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 631,504 shares of company stock valued at $7,639,287. Insiders own 6.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ALHC. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C lifted its holdings in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 31.8% in the 2nd quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 10,901,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,250,000 after acquiring an additional 2,630,788 shares during the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 6.4% in the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 3,106,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,294,000 after buying an additional 185,854 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 94.4% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,104,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,279,000 after buying an additional 1,507,759 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Alignment Healthcare by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,442,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,875,000 after acquiring an additional 32,839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Alignment Healthcare by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,252,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,622,000 after acquiring an additional 20,731 shares during the period. 86.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alignment Healthcare

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.