Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) was the target of a large drop in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,300,000 shares, a drop of 13.3% from the December 31st total of 1,500,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 570,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tower Semiconductor

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Senvest Management LLC lifted its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 1.7% in the third quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 8,320,433 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $368,262,000 after buying an additional 138,807 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 1.5% in the third quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 3,297,806 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $145,961,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 203.8% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,105,383 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $137,444,000 after purchasing an additional 2,083,262 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,790,991 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $123,529,000 after buying an additional 40,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meitav Investment House Ltd. increased its position in Tower Semiconductor by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 2,555,530 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $113,220,000 after buying an additional 123,713 shares in the last quarter. 70.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on TSEM shares. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Tower Semiconductor from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com cut Tower Semiconductor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Craig Hallum raised their price target on Tower Semiconductor from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tower Semiconductor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.33.

Tower Semiconductor Trading Up 0.4 %

Tower Semiconductor stock traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $48.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 628,855 shares, compared to its average volume of 714,220. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $50.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 5.82 and a quick ratio of 4.89. Tower Semiconductor has a 12 month low of $28.11 and a 12 month high of $55.31. The stock has a market cap of $5.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43 and a beta of 0.89.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $370.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $370.30 million. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 14.75%. Tower Semiconductor’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Tower Semiconductor will post 1.77 EPS for the current year.

Tower Semiconductor Company Profile

Tower Semiconductor Ltd., an independent semiconductor foundry, focus on specialty process technologies to manufacture analog intensive mixed-signal semiconductor devices in Israel, the United States, Japan, Europe, and internationally. It provides various customizable process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management, and MEMS.