Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR)

ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 16,046 call options on the company. This is an increase of 291% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,099 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Charles C. Pappis sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.00, for a total value of $260,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at $260,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Tracy Liu sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.38, for a total transaction of $2,132,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 110,772 shares in the company, valued at $5,248,377.36. This trade represents a 28.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 65,000 shares of company stock worth $3,110,750 over the last ninety days. 25.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in ACM Research by 396.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 336,993 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $13,187,000 after purchasing an additional 269,094 shares during the last quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ACM Research in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,054,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ACM Research by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,972,103 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $196,149,000 after purchasing an additional 125,690 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC bought a new position in ACM Research during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $989,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of ACM Research in the 3rd quarter worth about $8,026,000. 66.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACMR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of ACM Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen raised ACM Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ACM Research from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners initiated coverage on ACM Research in a research note on Monday, May 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

ACM Research Price Performance

ACM Research stock traded down $1.47 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $70.13. 312,507 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,413,765. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.51. ACM Research has a one year low of $21.87 and a one year high of $72.69. The stock has a market cap of $4.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.73 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $50.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.72.

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $231.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.69 million. ACM Research had a net margin of 9.48% and a return on equity of 4.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 34.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that ACM Research will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc (NASDAQ:ACMR) designs, develops and markets wet processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. The company focuses on advanced wafer cleaning technologies that address critical contamination-control requirements for logic, memory and advanced packaging applications. Since its founding in 2003, ACM Research has engineered modular platform tools that can be configured for a range of spin, scrub and batch cleaning processes.

Its product portfolio encompasses single-wafer spin cleaning systems featuring high-purity megasonic capabilities, dynamic chemical scrubbing modules for post-CMP residue removal and batch-process cleaning equipment designed for high-throughput production environments.