Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) Trading 5.2% Higher – Here’s Why

Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) shot up 5.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $94.00 and last traded at $94.4550. 1,339,075 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 2,573,133 shares. The stock had previously closed at $89.78.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RMBS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna lowered their target price on Rambus from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Zacks Research raised Rambus to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered Rambus from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Rambus in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Cfra lowered Rambus from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $105.71.

Rambus Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $10.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 1.55. The business has a fifty day moving average of $102.16 and a 200 day moving average of $97.61.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The semiconductor company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.68. The business had revenue of $190.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.21 million. Rambus had a return on equity of 17.69% and a net margin of 32.57%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Rambus, Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Rambus news, CFO Desmond Lynch sold 4,273 shares of Rambus stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.53, for a total transaction of $433,837.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 63,618 shares in the company, valued at $6,459,135.54. This trade represents a 6.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Luc Seraphin sold 39,914 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.63, for a total transaction of $3,936,717.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 331,070 shares in the company, valued at $32,653,434.10. This trade represents a 10.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Rambus

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Rambus during the third quarter worth $25,000. Abound Wealth Management acquired a new position in Rambus during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Rambus during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Torren Management LLC purchased a new position in Rambus during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management grew its position in Rambus by 199.0% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 302 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.54% of the company’s stock.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.