Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM)

Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $130.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 47.89% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on ZM. HSBC lifted their price objective on Zoom Communications from $107.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Zoom Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Zoom Communications in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Zoom Communications from $91.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Zoom Communications from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Zoom Communications has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.33.

Zoom Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ZM traded down $2.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $87.90. The stock had a trading volume of 1,593,529 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,412,765. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $96.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $88.84. Zoom Communications has a twelve month low of $69.15 and a twelve month high of $114.74. The firm has a market cap of $25.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.01.

Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Zoom Communications had a net margin of 41.99% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Zoom Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. Zoom Communications has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.960-6.000 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 1.450-1.470 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Zoom Communications will post 4.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Michelle Chang sold 8,489 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.32, for a total transaction of $690,325.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 30,467 shares in the company, valued at $2,477,576.44. This trade represents a 21.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Velchamy Sankarlingam sold 7,645 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.44, for a total value of $653,188.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 141,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,130,002.24. The trade was a 5.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 156,638 shares of company stock worth $13,900,194 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 8.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Zoom Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $509,788,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Zoom Communications by 43.9% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 12,195,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,052,328,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,186 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Zoom Communications during the 1st quarter valued at $105,761,000. Two Sigma Investments LP purchased a new stake in Zoom Communications during the 3rd quarter worth about $86,709,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Zoom Communications by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,967,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,327,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029,623 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.54% of the company’s stock.

About Zoom Communications

Zoom Video Communications, Inc (commonly referred to as Zoom) is a provider of cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions. The company’s platform supports video conferencing, voice calling, instant messaging, webinars and large-scale virtual events, and meeting room systems, marketed to businesses, educational institutions, government organizations and individual users. Zoom’s product lineup includes Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, Zoom Rooms, Zoom Video Webinars and Zoom Chat, and the company offers integrations and extensions through a developer marketplace and third-party apps.

Founded in 2011 by Eric S.