Moors & Cabot Inc. Reduces Position in Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

Moors & Cabot Inc. decreased its position in shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 13.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,905 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,676 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Microchip Technology were worth $625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCHP. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,093,007 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $636,184,000 after buying an additional 3,131,807 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,347,643 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $264,430,000 after purchasing an additional 776,408 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,143,769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $180,295,000 after purchasing an additional 116,823 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Microchip Technology by 9,901.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,857,654 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $163,886,000 after purchasing an additional 2,829,082 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 20.1% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,751,987 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $220,957,000 after purchasing an additional 460,697 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Microchip Technology Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of MCHP opened at $53.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.25 and a quick ratio of 1.23. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a 1-year low of $50.21 and a 1-year high of $100.57. The stock has a market cap of $28.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.54 and a beta of 1.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.79.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.15). Microchip Technology had a return on equity of 12.62% and a net margin of 6.49%. Equities analysts forecast that Microchip Technology Incorporated will post 1.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microchip Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 24th were given a $0.455 dividend. This represents a $1.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 24th. Microchip Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 325.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MCHP. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Microchip Technology from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Microchip Technology in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America cut Microchip Technology from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microchip Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.37.

Insider Activity at Microchip Technology

In other news, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 3,724 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.88, for a total value of $226,717.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 33,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,025,599.36. The trade was a 10.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Microchip Technology Company Profile

Microchip Technology Incorporated engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of 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 mixed-signal 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.