Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd Sells 139,206 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd trimmed its stake in Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 38.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 222,297 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after selling 139,206 shares during the period. Silicon Motion Technology accounts for about 1.2% of Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd’s holdings in Silicon Motion Technology were worth $13,502,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in Silicon Motion Technology during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,331,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,239,574 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $136,032,000 after buying an additional 485,862 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 43.3% in the 3rd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,080,375 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $65,622,000 after acquiring an additional 326,358 shares during the period. AIGH Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Silicon Motion Technology during the 2nd quarter worth $22,272,000. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the second quarter valued at about $21,208,000. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Silicon Motion Technology stock opened at $57.16 on Wednesday. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a twelve month low of $50.50 and a twelve month high of $85.87. The firm has a market cap of $1.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.84.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.07. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.52% and a net margin of 10.90%. The company had revenue of $212.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $209.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SIMO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Craig Hallum decreased their target price on Silicon Motion Technology from $96.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Silicon Motion Technology from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America lowered shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Silicon Motion Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.67.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. The company offers controllers for computing-grade solid state drives (SSDs), which are used in PCs and other client devices; enterprise-grade SSDs used in data centers; eMMC and UFS mobile embedded storage for use in smartphones and IoT devices; flash memory cards and flash drives for use in expandable storage; and specialized SSDs that are used in industrial, commercial, and automotive applications.