Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Rambus, Inc. $RMBS

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) by 289.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,946 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,335 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Rambus were worth $1,649,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RMBS. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Rambus by 572.7% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,822,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551,159 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Rambus by 196.0% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,550,665 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $161,579,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,776 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rambus in the third quarter worth $93,962,000. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Rambus by 183.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 894,906 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $93,249,000 after acquiring an additional 578,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Rambus by 192.8% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 701,746 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,926,000 after acquiring an additional 462,116 shares during the last quarter. 88.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Rambus Price Performance

Rambus stock opened at $148.66 on Thursday. Rambus, Inc. has a one year low of $52.12 and a one year high of $161.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.08 billion, a PE ratio of 70.79 and a beta of 1.79. The business’s fifty day moving average is $116.42 and its 200 day moving average is $105.36.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. Rambus had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 31.90%.The company had revenue of $180.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $179.94 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Rambus, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Xianzhi Sean Fan sold 37,914 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.69, for a total transaction of $5,751,174.66. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 168,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,538,225.02. This trade represents a 18.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Luc Seraphin sold 5,426 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.65, for a total value of $470,162.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 345,767 shares in the company, valued at $29,960,710.55. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 99,764 shares of company stock valued at $12,400,764. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RMBS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Rambus from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird cut Rambus from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $172.00 target price on shares of Rambus in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Rambus from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Rambus from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Rambus presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.43.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.