Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 883 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 64.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,248 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 883 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Silicon Motion Technology were worth $122,000 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. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 129.4% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 445 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,948 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $2,183,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 123.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 15.7% during 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. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 85,265 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $4,609,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ SIMO opened at $55.57 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.79. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a twelve month low of $48.81 and a twelve month high of $85.87. The business’s fifty day moving average is $54.57 and its 200 day moving average is $57.65.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.10). Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 10.90% and a return on equity of 11.52%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor producer to buy up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 13th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is 75.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SIMO. Craig Hallum reduced their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $96.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Susquehanna reduced their target price on Silicon Motion Technology from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $94.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Silicon Motion Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.67.

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.