Kennedy Capital Management LLC Raises Position in Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Kennedy Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,599 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after buying an additional 6,167 shares during the period. Kennedy Capital Management LLC owned 0.44% of Silicon Motion Technology worth $7,978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 123.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 64.7% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,248 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the fourth quarter worth $209,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the fourth quarter valued at about $208,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 27.8% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,954 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $240,000 after buying an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Price Performance

Shares of SIMO stock opened at $39.62 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $52.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.35. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a 1-year low of $37.21 and a 1-year high of $85.87. The firm has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.81.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.10). Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 11.29%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor producer to repurchase up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 7th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.05%. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Silicon Motion Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.63.

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.