Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) saw a large growth in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 880,200 shares, a growth of 31.1% from the June 30th total of 671,400 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 355,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Silicon Motion Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 154.9% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 548 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 3,971.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 570 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,332 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the 1st quarter worth about $150,000. Finally, Barometer Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $123,000. Institutional investors own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on SIMO shares. Morgan Stanley raised Silicon Motion Technology from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Craig Hallum boosted their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $80.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, B. Riley upped their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $109.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.13.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of SIMO stock traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $70.08. 625,503 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 310,213. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $79.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.86. Silicon Motion Technology has a fifty-two week low of $49.50 and a fifty-two week high of $85.87.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor producer reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.07. Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 7.78%. The firm had revenue of $189.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.23 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology will post 2.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is 113.07%.

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.