Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:SIMO) Short Interest Up 80.2% in August

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:SIMO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 1,455,337 shares, an increase of 80.2% from the July 30th total of 807,432 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,439,653 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Silicon Motion Technology

In related news, Director Han-Ping Shieh sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.00, for a total value of $328,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,460,000. This represents a 11.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kuan-Ming Lin sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $610,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 8,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,592,500. This trade represents a 19.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 4,000 shares of company stock worth $1,239,250. 5.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Silicon Motion Technology

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,573,355 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $145,851,000 after purchasing an additional 72,421 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP boosted its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 48.9% during the first quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,173,315 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $131,752,000 after purchasing an additional 385,568 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 2.3% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 783,663 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $74,299,000 after purchasing an additional 17,741 shares in the last quarter. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,893,000. Finally, Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 33.7% in the fourth quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 534,932 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $49,588,000 after purchasing an additional 134,927 shares during the period. 78.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Silicon Motion Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $240.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $230.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and nine have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $341.43.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:SIMO traded down $9.27 during trading on Friday, hitting $245.81. 405,336 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,227,740. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $275.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $215.42. Silicon Motion Technology has a 52-week low of $77.22 and a 52-week high of $355.00. The company has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.71.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $451.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $403.41 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 32.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 127.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Silicon Motion Technology will post 10.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.