Lazard Asset Management LLC Acquires 12,089 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO - Free Report) by 51.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,493 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock after purchasing an additional 12,089 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned about 0.11% of Silicon Motion Technology worth $1,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SIMO. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 64.7% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,248 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC increased its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 519.0% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 2,543 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 4th quarter valued at $208,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 4th quarter valued at $209,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 7.2% in 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. 78.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley lifted their price target on Silicon Motion Technology from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. 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 report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped 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 report on Wednesday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $75.88.

Silicon Motion Technology Price Performance

Shares of Silicon Motion Technology stock traded up $0.95 on Tuesday, hitting $65.10. 655,668 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 383,047. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a one year low of $37.21 and a one year high of $85.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a PE ratio of 24.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.72. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $48.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.59.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $166.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $162.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 5th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor producer to repurchase up to 2.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.