Bank of America Downgrades Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) to Neutral

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) was downgraded by stock analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Friday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $90.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $110.00. Bank of America‘s price target points to a potential upside of 6.67% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on MCHP. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Microchip Technology from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Microchip Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Mizuho raised Microchip Technology from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $85.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on Microchip Technology in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $106.00 price target on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.53.

Microchip Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ MCHP opened at $84.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $45.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.31 and a beta of 1.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $92.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.46. Microchip Technology has a fifty-two week low of $68.75 and a fifty-two week high of $100.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The semiconductor company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Microchip Technology had a return on equity of 36.78% and a net margin of 24.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 45.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Microchip Technology will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Stephen V. Drehobl sold 7,830 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.06, for a total transaction of $744,319.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 79,509 shares in the company, valued at $7,558,125.54. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Stephen V. Drehobl sold 7,830 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.06, for a total transaction of $744,319.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 79,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,558,125.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Stephen V. Drehobl sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.88, for a total value of $908,800.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 82,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,470,608.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,993 shares of company stock worth $2,251,857. 2.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microchip Technology

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,583,723 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,152,646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,921,497 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 9,279,166 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $836,795,000 after purchasing an additional 87,203 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 10.7% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,591,471 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $681,838,000 after purchasing an additional 736,818 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Microchip Technology during the fourth quarter worth approximately $672,196,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 4.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,363,937 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $582,301,000 after purchasing an additional 295,626 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Microchip Technology Company Profile

Microchip Technology Incorporated develops, manufactures, and sells smart, connected, and secure embedded control solutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company offers general purpose 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers; 32-bit embedded mixed-signal microprocessors; and specialized microcontrollers for automotive, industrial, computing, communications, lighting, power supplies, motor control, human machine interface, security, wired connectivity, and wireless connectivity applications.