Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 56,108 Shares of Semtech Co. (NASDAQ:SMTC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Semtech Co. (NASDAQ:SMTC) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 410,613 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 56,108 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.54% of Semtech worth $25,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SMTC. Huntington National Bank increased its position in Semtech by 105.2% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 589 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Semtech by 4,464.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 1,652 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Semtech by 51.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,768 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 598 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in shares of Semtech during the third quarter worth approximately $125,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Semtech by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $196,000 after buying an additional 421 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Semtech from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Benchmark raised their price target on Semtech from $56.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Semtech from $74.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on shares of Semtech from $48.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Semtech from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.91.

Semtech Price Performance

SMTC stock opened at $37.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.10. Semtech Co. has a 1 year low of $19.76 and a 1 year high of $79.52.

Semtech (NASDAQ:SMTC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $236.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $232.89 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.02 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Semtech Co. will post -0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Semtech news, CFO Mark Lin sold 2,990 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.45, for a total value of $177,755.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $323,764.70. This represents a 35.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Imran Sherazi sold 1,338 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $100,350.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 14 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,050. This represents a 98.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,747 shares of company stock valued at $1,095,061 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

About Semtech

Semtech Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets analog and mixed-signal semiconductor and advanced algorithms. It provides signal integrity products, including a portfolio of optical data communications and video transport products used in various infrastructure, and industrial applications; a portfolio of integrated circuits for data centers, enterprise networks, passive optical networks, wireless base station optical transceivers, and high-speed interface applications; and video products for broadcast applications, as well as video-over-IP technology for professional audio video applications.