JMP Securities Reaffirms Market Perform Rating for Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM)

Key Points

• JMP Securities has restated its "market perform" rating for Zoom Communications (NASDAQ: ZM), indicating a neutral stance on the stock.
• The company's stock target prices have varying estimates from analysts, with Piper Sandler and Scotiabank raising their targets to $85.00, while Citigroup reduced its target from $85.00 to $84.00.
• Zoom's recent earnings report showed a 2.9% revenue increase year-over-year, with an EPS of $1.43, surpassing analyst expectations.

Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating restated by stock analysts at JMP Securities in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports.

ZM has been the subject of several other research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Zoom Communications from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Zoom Communications in a research note on Friday. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Zoom Communications from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Zoom Communications from $85.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Zoom Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $87.91.

Zoom Communications Price Performance

Shares of ZM opened at $73.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 18.89 and a beta of 0.68. Zoom Communications has a 1 year low of $60.71 and a 1 year high of $92.80. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.73.

Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 21st. The company reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.13. Zoom Communications had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 11.08%. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.35 earnings per share. Zoom Communications's quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Zoom Communications will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jonathan Chadwick sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.86, for a total value of $1,871,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,875 shares of the company's stock, valued at $439,802.50. This represents a 80.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Eric S. Yuan sold 33,691 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.79, for a total transaction of $2,519,749.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 87,542 shares of company stock valued at $6,609,623 over the last quarter. 11.51% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Zoom Communications

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Marex Group plc purchased a new stake in Zoom Communications in the second quarter worth about $1,034,000. MRP Capital Investments LLC raised its holdings in Zoom Communications by 114.5% in the second quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the company's stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 1,735 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in Zoom Communications by 8.4% in the second quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 8,036 shares of the company's stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in Zoom Communications in the second quarter worth about $551,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Zoom Communications by 122,628.6% in the second quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 8,591 shares of the company's stock worth $670,000 after purchasing an additional 8,584 shares in the last quarter. 66.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Zoom Communications Company Profile

Zoom Video Communications, Inc provides unified communications platform in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers Zoom Meetings that offers HD video, voice, chat, and content sharing through mobile devices, desktops, laptops, telephones, and conference room systems; Zoom Phone, an enterprise cloud phone system; and Zoom Chat enables users to share messages, images, audio files, and content in desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile devices.

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