Alignment Healthcare Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:ALHC)

Alignment Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALHC) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 16,250 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 453% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,941 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alignment Healthcare news, CEO John E. Kao sold 90,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.33, for a total value of $1,019,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,543,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,813,323. This represents a 3.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Sebastian Burzacchi sold 8,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.26, for a total value of $96,273.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 217,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,447,867.70. This trade represents a 3.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 653,546 shares of company stock worth $7,875,008 over the last quarter. 6.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 20.0% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 12,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 2,072 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 18.1% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,000 after purchasing an additional 2,077 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alignment Healthcare during the third quarter valued at $95,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Alignment Healthcare by 20.9% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 55,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 9,595 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Alignment Healthcare during the third quarter valued at about $131,000. Institutional investors own 86.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on ALHC. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Alignment Healthcare from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stephens raised shares of Alignment Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group boosted 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. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on Alignment Healthcare in a report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector weight” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $11.44.

Alignment Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of Alignment Healthcare stock remained flat at $10.84 on Friday. The stock had a trading volume of 377,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,182,114. Alignment Healthcare has a fifty-two week low of $4.46 and a fifty-two week high of $14.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.08 and a beta of 1.42. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.26.

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

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.