Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, a growth of 20.0% from the February 13th total of 4,550,000 shares. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Amkor Technology Stock Down 0.2 %

AMKR stock opened at $19.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 2.11. The company has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67 and a beta of 1.88. Amkor Technology has a fifty-two week low of $18.87 and a fifty-two week high of $44.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.03 and a 200-day moving average of $26.30.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 5.60%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.0827 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Amkor Technology’s dividend payout ratio is 23.08%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total value of $119,056.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,105.72. This represents a 79.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.85, for a total value of $18,999,995.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,020,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $218,956,009.50. This represents a 7.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 31.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amkor Technology

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMKR. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Amkor Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Amkor Technology by 353.7% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Amkor Technology by 421.0% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,242 shares during the period. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in Amkor Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Amkor Technology by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,834 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares during the period. 42.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AMKR shares. Melius Research cut shares of Amkor Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Amkor Technology in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley lowered their target price on Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Amkor Technology from $42.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.50.

Amkor Technology Company Profile

Amkor Technology, Inc provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test, and drop shipment services; flip chip scale package products for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory digital baseband, and as applications processors in mobile devices; flip-chip ball grid array packages for various networking, storage, computing, automotive, and consumer applications; and memory products for system memory or platform data storage.