Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) Shares Up 6.1% – Time to Buy?

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM)’s stock price traded up 6.1% on Thursday. The company traded as high as $242.78 and last traded at $241.3860. Approximately 409,507 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 2,246,110 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.43.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on TSEM shares. National Bank Financial raised shares of Tower Semiconductor to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Tower Semiconductor from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Friday, September 25th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $300.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Friday, August 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $367.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Tower Semiconductor has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $316.00.

Tower Semiconductor Stock Up 6.6%

The company has a market capitalization of $27.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.86 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average of $224.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $226.89. The company has a quick ratio of 4.31, a current ratio of 4.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $460.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $454.68 million. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 9.83% and a net margin of 16.94%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Yoav Chelouche sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.06, for a total value of $49,893.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 33,734 shares in the company, valued at $7,254,834.04. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Russell Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of Tower Semiconductor stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total transaction of $25,883,484.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,822,531.92. This trade represents a 16.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 181,767 shares of company stock valued at $45,610,065. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tower Semiconductor

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 214.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,206,467 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $259,083,000 after buying an additional 1,505,421 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new stake in Tower Semiconductor in the fourth quarter worth $222,530,000. Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor in the fourth quarter worth $172,848,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 0.6% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,081,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,723,000 after acquiring an additional 6,458 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Situational Awareness LP increased its holdings in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 53.6% during the fourth quarter. Situational Awareness LP now owns 723,004 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $84,895,000 after acquiring an additional 252,404 shares in the last quarter. 70.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tower Semiconductor Company Profile

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israel-based specialty semiconductor foundry that manufactures integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, integrated device manufacturers and other technology companies. Rather than selling products under a broad consumer brand, Tower provides wafer fabrication, process technology and manufacturing services tailored to customers’ chip designs.

The company specializes in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, radio-frequency components, power-management devices, CMOS image sensors and other specialty technologies.