Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday. The stock had previously closed at $55.29, but opened at $51.24. Cohu shares last traded at $50.6050, with a volume of 62,045 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Cohu from $50.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research lowered Cohu from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Robert W. Baird began coverage on shares of Cohu in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $74.00 target price on shares of Cohu in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cohu from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cohu has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.75.

Cohu Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -57.78 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 5.74, a quick ratio of 4.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.74.

Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $149.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.20 million. Cohu had a negative net margin of 7.43% and a negative return on equity of 1.96%. Cohu’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.02 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Cohu, Inc. will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Luis Muller sold 21,662 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.00, for a total value of $1,581,326.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 822,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,073,671. This represents a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.31, for a total transaction of $55,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 157,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,722,497.62. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 have sold a total of 134,999 shares of company stock valued at $8,321,309 in the last 90 days. 3.05% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cohu

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cohu in the 2nd quarter valued at about $545,932,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Cohu in the second quarter worth $77,814,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its position in Cohu by 125.5% during the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 955,344 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,253,000 after purchasing an additional 531,661 shares during the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Cohu in the first quarter valued at about $23,887,000. Finally, Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY purchased a new stake in shares of Cohu during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,794,000. 94.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cohu

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.