Blue Trust Inc. Buys 1,850 Shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 17.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,383 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Microchip Technology were worth $710,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Microchip Technology in the fourth quarter valued at $5,917,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Microchip Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,312,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Microchip Technology by 5,185.4% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 9,408 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $755,000 after buying an additional 9,230 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted 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 worth $7,721,000 after buying an additional 19,663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Microchip Technology by 9,901.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,857,654 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $163,886,000 after acquiring an additional 2,829,082 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of Microchip Technology from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Microchip Technology from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Microchip Technology from $85.00 to $72.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microchip Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.00.

Microchip Technology Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ MCHP opened at $56.03 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $59.95 and its 200 day moving average is $71.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.09 billion, a PE ratio of 39.18 and a beta of 1.52. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a twelve month low of $54.47 and a twelve month high of $100.57.

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

Microchip Technology Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a $0.455 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. This is an increase from Microchip Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Microchip Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 127.27%.

Microchip Technology Company 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.