Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) Shares Down 18.6% – What’s Next?

Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU)’s stock price dropped 18.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $35.19 and last traded at $35.8160. 1,757,368 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 55% from the average session volume of 1,131,559 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on COHU. Craig Hallum reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cohu in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cohu from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Cohu in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Cohu from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cohu in a report on Thursday, October 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cohu currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.38.

Cohu Trading Up 10.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a current ratio of 5.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $56.11 and a 200-day moving average of $47.31. The firm has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -74.02 and a beta of 1.60.

Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.08. Cohu had a negative net margin of 3.97% and a positive return on equity of 1.47%. The firm had revenue of $172.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.25 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.06) EPS. Cohu’s quarterly revenue was up 37.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Cohu, Inc. will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Luis Muller sold 21,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.00, for a total transaction of $1,581,326.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 822,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,073,671. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Christopher Bohrson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.31, for a total value of $55,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 157,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,722,497.62. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 116,692 shares of company stock valued at $7,374,716 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.05% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cohu

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in COHU. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its holdings in shares of Cohu by 55.2% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 10,631 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $724,000 after acquiring an additional 3,780 shares during the period. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC bought a new stake in Cohu during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,838,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cohu during the 3rd quarter worth about $4,956,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Cohu by 17.7% during the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,510 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Cohu during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $413,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.67% of the company’s stock.

Cohu Company Profile

Cohu, Inc is a global provider of semiconductor test and inspection equipment and related services. The company supplies solutions used by semiconductor manufacturers and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers to evaluate devices during production, helping improve manufacturing quality, reliability and efficiency.

Cohu’s product portfolio includes semiconductor test handlers, contactors and other interface products, inspection and metrology systems, thermal-management equipment, and software for test-data analysis and factory automation.