Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) Stock Now Rated "Moderate Buy" by Wall Street Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts rate Tower Semiconductor “Moderate Buy”: Seven analysts recommend buying, one strongly recommends buying, and two rate it a hold. The average 12-month price target is $316, above the reported $230.47 opening price.
• Quarterly results exceeded expectations: Tower reported $0.88 in EPS versus the $0.76 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 23.7% year over year to $460.08 million.
• Insiders have been selling shares: Insiders sold $45.6 million worth of stock over the past three months, including a $25.9 million sale by CEO Russell Ellwanger. Institutional investors own 70.51% of the company.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the ten analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $316.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TSEM. Barclays began coverage on Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Friday, September 18th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $310.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $270.00 target price for the company. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Friday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $300.00 price target on the stock. Finally, National Bank Financial raised shares of Tower Semiconductor to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th.

Tower Semiconductor Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TSEM opened at $230.47 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 4.91 and a quick ratio of 4.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $224.55. Tower Semiconductor has a 1 year low of $67.74 and a 1 year high of $319.94. The company has a market capitalization of $25.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.10 and a beta of 0.88.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.12. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 9.83% and a net margin of 16.94%.The firm had revenue of $460.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $454.68 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Tower Semiconductor will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yoav Chelouche sold 232 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.06, for a total value of $49,893.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 33,734 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,254,834.04. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Russell Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of Tower Semiconductor stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total value of $25,883,484.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 526,788 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $130,822,531.92. This trade represents a 16.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 181,767 shares of company stock worth $45,610,065 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Tower Semiconductor

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Tower Semiconductor during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,530,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 214.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,206,467 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $259,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,505,421 shares in the last quarter. Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd purchased a new stake in Tower Semiconductor in the 4th quarter worth approximately $172,848,000. E20 Capital Ltd bought a new position in Tower Semiconductor in the 1st quarter valued at $107,708,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Tower Semiconductor in the 1st quarter valued at $85,435,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.51% of the company's stock.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. NASDAQ: TSEM is a specialty semiconductor foundry that manufactures integrated circuits for fabless chip companies, integrated device manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers. The company focuses on analog and mixed-signal technologies rather than high-volume digital logic, providing process development, wafer manufacturing, design enablement and other foundry services.

Its technology portfolio includes radio-frequency and high-performance analog circuits, power management, CMOS image sensors, medical and industrial sensors, silicon photonics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and automotive and industrial semiconductor solutions.

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