Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $94.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. B. Riley reduced their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $112.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Silicon Motion Technology from $78.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Craig Hallum decreased their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $96.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.67.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SIMO opened at $55.33 on Monday. Silicon Motion Technology has a 12-month low of $51.92 and a 12-month high of $85.87. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $57.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.77. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a PE ratio of 20.96, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.84.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $212.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $209.49 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.52% and a net margin of 10.90%. The company’s revenue was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology will post 2.78 EPS for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.61%. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is presently 75.38%.

Institutional Trading of Silicon Motion Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 3,971.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 570 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $139,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the first quarter valued at $150,000. Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the third quarter worth $151,000. Finally, HBK Sorce Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the first quarter worth $204,000. 78.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Silicon Motion Technology

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. The company offers controllers for computing-grade solid state drives (SSDs), which are used in PCs and other client devices; enterprise-grade SSDs used in data centers; eMMC and UFS mobile embedded storage for use in smartphones and IoT devices; flash memory cards and flash drives for use in expandable storage; and specialized SSDs that are used in industrial, commercial, and automotive applications.