Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) Shares Down 9.3% – Here’s What Happened

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) dropped 9.3% during trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $142.88 and last traded at $143.17. Approximately 552,170 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 2,351,162 shares. The stock had previously closed at $157.86.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on TSEM. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Tower Semiconductor from $270.00 to $235.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush decreased their target price on Tower Semiconductor from $300.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings raised Tower Semiconductor from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $335.00 price objective on Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tower Semiconductor presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $297.12.

Tower Semiconductor Stock Down 8.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $201.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.71 and a beta of 0.95.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The semiconductor company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $526.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $521.83 million. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 11.72% and a net margin of 19.36%. The company’s revenue was up 32.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tower Semiconductor

In other Tower Semiconductor news, Director Yoav Chelouche sold 232 shares of Tower Semiconductor stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.06, for a total value of $49,893.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 33,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,254,834.04. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tower Semiconductor

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 5,634,758 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,299,282,000 after buying an additional 980,910 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in Tower Semiconductor by 10.9% during the third quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,918,723 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $436,375,000 after purchasing an additional 188,000 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Tower Semiconductor by 0.6% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,081,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $189,723,000 after purchasing an additional 6,458 shares during the period. E20 Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Tower Semiconductor in the first quarter worth approximately $107,708,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 86.0% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 414,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $70,625,000 after purchasing an additional 191,839 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.51% of the company’s stock.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israel-based specialty semiconductor foundry that manufactures chips for companies that design and market their own products. Its services include wafer fabrication, process development and engineering support, helping customers bring semiconductor designs from development into production. The company focuses on analog and mixed-signal technologies used in areas such as radio-frequency communications, power management, image sensing, automotive electronics and silicon photonics.