Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Diodes has been upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" to a "buy" rating, reflecting positive market sentiment towards the company.
• Benchmark also raised its price target for Diodes from $55.00 to $62.00, indicating growing confidence among analysts regarding the stock's future performance.
• The company has initiated a $100 million stock repurchase program, suggesting that the board believes the stock is currently undervalued.

Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on DIOD. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $62.00 price objective (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Diodes in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Baird R W raised Diodes from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Diodes from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $55.00.

Diodes Trading Up 1.1%

DIOD stock traded up $0.55 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $49.46. The company had a trading volume of 609,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 513,006. 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 has a 52 week low of $32.93 and a 52 week high of $72.76. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $51.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.93 and a beta of 1.47.

Diodes (NASDAQ:DIOD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. Diodes had a return on equity of 3.04% and a net margin of 1.90%. The firm had revenue of $332.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $323.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Diodes will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diodes declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 8th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 5.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Diodes in the second quarter worth about $212,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in Diodes by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 7,790 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 1,016 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Diodes by 28.2% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 166,478 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $8,805,000 after buying an additional 36,639 shares in the last quarter. Shaker Investments LLC OH purchased a new position in Diodes during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $885,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in Diodes by 41.1% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $267,000 after buying an additional 1,469 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.23% of the company's stock.

Diodes Company Profile

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.