Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Decreases Stake in Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. cut its stake in shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 57.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 140,290 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 191,462 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Microchip Technology were worth $8,045,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Microchip Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,917,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Microchip Technology during the third quarter worth $3,312,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in Microchip Technology by 5,185.4% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 9,408 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $755,000 after buying an additional 9,230 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Microchip Technology by 25.7% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 96,163 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $7,721,000 after buying an additional 19,663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Microchip Technology by 9,901.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,857,654 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $163,886,000 after buying an additional 2,829,082 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Microchip Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MCHP opened at $58.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $60.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.32. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a 1-year low of $54.47 and a 1-year high of $100.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a market cap of $31.42 billion, a PE ratio of 40.92 and a beta of 1.52.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.03. Microchip Technology had a net margin of 14.22% and a return on equity of 19.47%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 48.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Microchip Technology Incorporated will post 1.31 EPS for the current year.

Microchip Technology Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.455 per share. This is a boost from Microchip Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.11%. Microchip Technology’s payout ratio is presently 127.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCHP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Microchip Technology from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Microchip Technology from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.00.

Microchip Technology Profile

Microchip Technology Incorporated engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of smart, connected, and secure embedded control solutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company offers general purpose 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit mixed-signal microcontrollers; 32-bit embedded mixed-signal microprocessors; and specialized microcontrollers for automotive, industrial, computing, communications, lighting, power supplies, motor control, human machine interface, security, wired connectivity, and wireless connectivity applications.