Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on SIMO. Weiss Ratings lowered Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 16th. Zacks Research cut Silicon Motion Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Susquehanna raised their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $240.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective (up from $288.00) on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Friday, October 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.75.

Silicon Motion Technology Trading Up 5.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:SIMO opened at $172.01 on Friday. Silicon Motion Technology has a 52-week low of $79.76 and a 52-week high of $355.00. The company has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $239.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $215.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 3.65 and a current ratio of 5.68.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor producer reported $4.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.30 by $1.05. The business had revenue of $560.22 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $529.10 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 32.29% and a net margin of 19.36%. Silicon Motion Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 131.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology will post 10.20 earnings per share for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.5750 per share. This is a boost from Silicon Motion Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 5th. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.44%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Silicon Motion Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. acquired a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. acquired a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 3rd quarter valued at $58,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at $88,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 1,766.7% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 392 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $110,000 after buying an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gen Wealth Partners Inc increased its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 174.7% during the 3rd quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc now owns 478 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets NAND flash controllers and related storage solutions. Its products help manage data storage and retrieval in devices that use NAND flash memory.

The company’s offerings include controllers for solid-state drives (SSDs), embedded storage such as eMMC and UFS, and removable storage products including memory cards and USB flash drives. Silicon Motion also develops firmware and other technologies for storage applications.

Founded in 1995, Silicon Motion serves customers around the world, including storage-device manufacturers, module makers and electronics companies.