Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) Raised to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $88.00 price objective on the semiconductor producer’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $59.00.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SIMO. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. B. Riley upped their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $93.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $91.13.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SIMO opened at $78.72 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $75.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.73, a PEG ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.87. Silicon Motion Technology has a 52-week low of $49.50 and a 52-week high of $95.33.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $202.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.60 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 7.77% and a net margin of 8.34%. Analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is currently 113.07%.

Institutional Trading of Silicon Motion Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Alpine Associates Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 955,514 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $58,544,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 63.1% during the third quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 944,559 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $48,409,000 after buying an additional 365,461 shares during the period. Segantii Capital Management Ltd increased its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 178.0% in the third quarter. Segantii Capital Management Ltd now owns 833,991 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $42,742,000 after buying an additional 533,991 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 1,250.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 819,289 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $41,989,000 after acquiring an additional 758,640 shares during the period. Finally, Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC grew its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 771.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 760,554 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $38,978,000 after acquiring an additional 673,278 shares during the period. 78.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

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.