Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:SIMO) Short Interest Up 80.2% in August

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:SIMO) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 1,455,337 shares, a growth of 80.2% from the July 30th total of 807,432 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,439,653 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Down 6.1%

Shares of SIMO stock opened at $231.85 on Tuesday. Silicon Motion Technology has a fifty-two week low of $77.22 and a fifty-two week high of $355.00. The stock has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.71. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $274.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $216.78.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $451.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $403.41 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 32.04% and a net margin of 22.06%.The business’s revenue was up 127.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Silicon Motion Technology will post 10.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kuan-Ming Lin sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $610,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 8,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,592,500. This represents a 19.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Han-Ping Shieh sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $328.00, for a total value of $328,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,460,000. This represents a 11.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 5.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Silicon Motion Technology

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 35.8% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 3,559 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $1,186,000 after purchasing an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. XML Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $408,000. Greenleaf Trust acquired a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the 2nd quarter valued at $317,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the 2nd quarter valued at $9,340,000. Finally, Archer Investment Corp purchased a new position in Silicon Motion Technology during the second quarter worth $395,000. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $275.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. B. Riley Financial increased their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $312.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $240.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and nine have given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.43.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

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.