Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) Trading Down 3.8% – What’s Next?

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)’s share price fell 3.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $54.48 and last traded at $54.36. 37,025 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 342,340 shares. The stock had previously closed at $56.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SIMO has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Silicon Motion Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.63.

Silicon Motion Technology Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.41.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.10). Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 11.63%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 13th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.35%.

Silicon Motion Technology announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 5th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor producer to reacquire up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SIMO. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 129.4% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 445 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,826,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 36.4% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 570,816 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $34,671,000 after buying an additional 152,467 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 27.7% in the third 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. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 31,341 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $1,904,000 after acquiring an additional 1,784 shares during the period. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Silicon Motion Technology

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.