Short Interest in Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) Increases By 93.9%

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,260,000 shares, a growth of 93.9% from the May 15th total of 649,900 shares. Approximately 3.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 525,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,959 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $214,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 36,248 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $1,959,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Twinbeech Capital LP boosted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP now owns 10,773 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $582,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 61.8% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,152 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 5,668 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Silicon Motion Technology Trading Up 3.9%

SIMO traded up $2.63 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $69.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 179,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 384,336. Silicon Motion Technology has a 12 month low of $37.21 and a 12 month high of $85.87. The stock has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.80. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $54.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.13.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.16. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 11.29%. The company had revenue of $166.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. Silicon Motion Technology’s quarterly revenue was down 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SIMO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.75.

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.