Wall Street Zen Downgrades Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) to Hold

Key Points

• Diodes has been downgraded from a "buy" to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting changing analyst sentiment towards the stock.
• Despite this downgrade, the consensus rating on Diodes still remains a "Moderate Buy," with an average target price of $55.00 as set by various analysts.
• Diodes has announced a $100 million stock buyback program, which indicates the company's belief that its shares may be undervalued.

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Baird R W raised shares of Diodes from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Diodes from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $62.00 target price (up from $55.00) on shares of Diodes in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Diodes currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Diodes Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ DIOD traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $50.52. The company had a trading volume of 308,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 423,798. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $51.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.15. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.85 and a beta of 1.46. Diodes has a 1 year low of $32.93 and a 1 year high of $81.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.43, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $332.11 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $323.28 million. Diodes had a net margin of 1.90% and a return on equity of 3.04%. The firm's revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Diodes will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diodes announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to purchase up to 5.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Diodes

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DIOD. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Diodes in the fourth quarter valued at about $72,037,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Diodes in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,933,000. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Diodes by 107.6% during the first quarter. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. now owns 539,170 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $23,276,000 after purchasing an additional 279,400 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Diodes during the 1st quarter worth about $8,679,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Diodes by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,238,567 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $138,053,000 after purchasing an additional 168,545 shares during the last quarter. 99.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Diodes

Diodes Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and supplies application-specific standard products in the broad discrete, logic, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor markets worldwide. The company offers discrete semiconductor products, such as MOSFETs, SiC MOSFETs; data line protection, power line protection, thyristers, USB Type-C protection, and transient voltage suppressors; Schottky, small signal switching, Zener, and SiC diodes; bridges, super barrier, Schottky, Schottky bridge, and fast/ultra-fast rectifiers; and bipolar, avalanche, gate driver, and pre-bias transistors.