Easterly Investment Partners LLC Sells 20,861 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC cut its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 9.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 204,931 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after selling 20,861 shares during the quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Silicon Motion Technology were worth $11,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of SIMO. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,331,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,239,574 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $136,032,000 after purchasing an additional 485,862 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the 3rd quarter worth $13,211,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 21.7% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,103,913 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $67,051,000 after purchasing an additional 196,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 36.4% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 570,816 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $34,671,000 after buying an additional 152,467 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Down 3.1 %

SIMO opened at $53.08 on Thursday. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a 52 week low of $48.81 and a 52 week high of $85.87. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.41. The company has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.71.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 11.63%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 5th that allows the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor producer to repurchase up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Silicon Motion Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 13th. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is 74.35%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SIMO. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Silicon Motion Technology presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.63.

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.