Short Interest in Lattice Semiconductor Co. (NASDAQ:LSCC) Rises By 15.5%

Lattice Semiconductor Co. (NASDAQ:LSCC) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,160,000 shares, a growth of 15.5% from the August 15th total of 10,530,000 shares. Currently, 8.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,730,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LSCC. Bank of America cut shares of Lattice Semiconductor from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $83.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Lattice Semiconductor from $85.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on Lattice Semiconductor from $85.00 to $65.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Lattice Semiconductor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Lattice Semiconductor from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lattice Semiconductor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Mark Jon Nelson sold 1,232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.98, for a total value of $60,343.36. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,919 shares in the company, valued at $730,732.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Sherri R. Luther sold 20,632 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.89, for a total transaction of $1,008,698.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 90,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,416,771.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Mark Jon Nelson sold 1,232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.98, for a total transaction of $60,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 14,919 shares in the company, valued at $730,732.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lattice Semiconductor

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lattice Semiconductor by 43.5% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,236,871 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $430,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,889,110 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Lattice Semiconductor in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $98,684,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP lifted its position in shares of Lattice Semiconductor by 1,592.8% in the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 1,212,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $94,896,000 after buying an additional 1,141,230 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lattice Semiconductor by 78.7% during the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,494,932 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $195,179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098,962 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Lattice Semiconductor by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 9,544,835 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $658,498,000 after acquiring an additional 611,550 shares during the last quarter. 98.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lattice Semiconductor Price Performance

NASDAQ:LSCC traded up $0.91 on Tuesday, hitting $51.22. 3,598,456 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,393,831. The company has a market cap of $7.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.83 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $49.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.18. Lattice Semiconductor has a 52 week low of $40.65 and a 52 week high of $87.87.

Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ:LSCC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $124.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $130.17 million. Lattice Semiconductor had a net margin of 30.26% and a return on equity of 23.39%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 34.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Lattice Semiconductor will post 0.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Lattice Semiconductor

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops and sells semiconductor products in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The company offers field programmable gate arrays that consist of four product families, including the Lattice Certus and ECP, Mach, iCE, and CrossLink. It also provides video connectivity application specific standard products.