Alpine Associates Management Inc. Sells 10,092 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Alpine Associates Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 330,705 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after selling 10,092 shares during the quarter. Silicon Motion Technology accounts for approximately 1.1% of Alpine Associates Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position. Alpine Associates Management Inc. owned approximately 0.98% of Silicon Motion Technology worth $17,875,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 46.4% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,925 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the 3rd quarter worth $151,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,215 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 707 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 129.4% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 445 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology in the 3rd quarter worth $1,826,000. 78.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SIMO has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.63.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

Shares of SIMO stock opened at $52.76 on Friday. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a 52-week low of $48.81 and a 52-week high of $85.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.61, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.15.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 earnings per share (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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 13th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is 74.35%.

Silicon Motion Technology declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 5th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor producer to reacquire up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.