Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on SIMO. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Silicon Motion Technology from $240.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Thursday, July 30th. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $300.00 price target on the stock. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $310.00 price target (up from $288.00) on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.25.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

SIMO stock opened at $162.76 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $241.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $215.16. The company has a current ratio of 5.68, a quick ratio of 3.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $5.52 billion, a PE ratio of 17.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.78. Silicon Motion Technology has a 1-year low of $79.76 and a 1-year high of $355.00.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor producer reported $4.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.30 by $1.05. The company had revenue of $560.22 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $529.10 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 32.29% and a net margin of 19.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 131.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology will post 10.20 earnings per share for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 5th will be given a dividend of $0.5750 per share. This is an increase from Silicon Motion Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 5th. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is currently 24.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 48.9% in the 1st quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,173,315 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $131,752,000 after acquiring an additional 385,568 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 781,981 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $87,809,000 after acquiring an additional 23,403 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 19.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor LLC now owns 541,907 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $151,734,000 after acquiring an additional 88,600 shares in the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 34,233.7% during the 3rd quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 489,599 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $137,088,000 after acquiring an additional 488,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 112.3% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,697 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $47,802,000 after acquiring an additional 225,221 shares in the last quarter. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Silicon Motion Technology

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets NAND flash controllers and related storage solutions. Its products help manage data storage and retrieval in devices that use NAND flash memory.

The company’s offerings include controllers for solid-state drives (SSDs), embedded storage such as eMMC and UFS, and removable storage products including memory cards and USB flash drives. Silicon Motion also develops firmware and other technologies for storage applications.

Founded in 1995, Silicon Motion serves customers around the world, including storage-device manufacturers, module makers and electronics companies.