Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, an increase of 20.0% from the February 13th total of 4,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,650,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days. Approximately 5.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at Amkor Technology

In related news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total transaction of $119,056.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,105.72. This represents a 79.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.85, for a total transaction of $18,999,995.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,020,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,956,009.50. The trade was a 7.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 31.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amkor Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amkor Technology by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,664,226 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $402,414,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,002 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,778,790 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,767,000 after acquiring an additional 350,809 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,081,481 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $104,853,000 after acquiring an additional 556,761 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 24,383.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,787,565 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $115,899,000 after acquiring an additional 3,772,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 5.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,355,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $102,688,000 after acquiring an additional 176,528 shares in the last quarter. 42.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AMKR shares. B. Riley cut their target price on shares of Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius lowered shares of Amkor Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius Research lowered shares of Amkor Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Amkor Technology in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Amkor Technology Price Performance

AMKR stock opened at $19.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $23.17 and a 200-day moving average of $26.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.70 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Amkor Technology has a 12 month low of $18.87 and a 12 month high of $44.86.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a net margin of 5.60% and a return on equity of 8.59%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $0.0827 dividend. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Amkor Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.08%.

About Amkor Technology

Amkor Technology, Inc provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test, and drop shipment services; flip chip scale package products for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory digital baseband, and as applications processors in mobile devices; flip-chip ball grid array packages for various networking, storage, computing, automotive, and consumer applications; and memory products for system memory or platform data storage.