Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) Short Interest Down 21.0% in September

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 777,000 shares, a drop of 21.0% from the September 15th total of 984,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 334,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

Shares of SIMO stock traded down $0.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $59.93. 111,758 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 280,673. Silicon Motion Technology has a 52 week low of $51.85 and a 52 week high of $85.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.61, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $60.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.48.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The semiconductor producer reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $210.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $206.75 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 10.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 50.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology will post 2.86 EPS for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 8th. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 85.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on SIMO. B. Riley reduced their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $112.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lowered Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Silicon Motion Technology from $78.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.11.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the fourth quarter worth approximately $718,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 615.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 316,294 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $19,379,000 after purchasing an additional 272,103 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 48.1% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,527 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $3,080,000. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 5.1% during the first quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 736,371 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $56,656,000 after buying an additional 35,623 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. The company offers controllers for computing-grade solid state drives (SSDs), which are used in PCs and other client devices; enterprise-grade SSDs used in data centers; eMMC and UFS mobile embedded storage for use in smartphones and IoT devices; flash memory cards and flash drives for use in expandable storage; and specialized SSDs that are used in industrial, commercial, and automotive applications.