Benchmark Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) Stock

Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) had its price target upped by Benchmark from $55.00 to $62.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on DIOD. Baird R W raised Diodes from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Robert W. Baird raised Diodes from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Diodes Price Performance

NASDAQ:DIOD opened at $49.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.74 and a beta of 1.42. Diodes has a 52-week low of $32.93 and a 52-week high of $86.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $42.65 and a 200 day moving average of $51.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 3.26.

Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. Diodes had a return on equity of 3.28% and a net margin of 3.36%. The firm had revenue of $332.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $323.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Diodes will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diodes declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 8th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 5.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of DIOD. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Diodes in the fourth quarter worth about $72,037,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Diodes during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,933,000. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Diodes by 107.6% during the 1st quarter. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. now owns 539,170 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,276,000 after purchasing an additional 279,400 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Diodes during the 1st quarter valued at about $8,679,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Diodes by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,238,567 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $138,053,000 after purchasing an additional 168,545 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.23% of the company’s stock.

About Diodes

Diodes Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and supplies application-specific standard products in the broad discrete, logic, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor markets worldwide. The company offers discrete semiconductor products, such as MOSFETs, SiC MOSFETs; data line protection, power line protection, thyristers, USB Type-C protection, and transient voltage suppressors; Schottky, small signal switching, Zener, and SiC diodes; bridges, super barrier, Schottky, Schottky bridge, and fast/ultra-fast rectifiers; and bipolar, avalanche, gate driver, and pre-bias transistors.