Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) Stock Short Interest Rises 68.8%

Key Points

• Short interest surged 68.8% to 4.57 million shares as of September 30, representing about 4.1% of Tower Semiconductor’s outstanding shares and 1.9 days to cover.
• Analysts maintain a favorable outlook, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $316 price target; recent ratings include buy and outperform recommendations.
• Tower Semiconductor beat quarterly expectations, reporting $0.88 in EPS versus $0.76 forecast and $460.08 million in revenue, up 23.7% year over year. Insiders sold approximately $45.6 million of shares over the past 90 days.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 4,567,523 shares, an increase of 68.8% from the September 15th total of 2,705,350 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,351,813 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on TSEM. National Bank Financial upgraded Tower Semiconductor to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Friday, September 25th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $300.00 target price for the company. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. They set a "buy" rating and a $270.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Tower Semiconductor currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $316.00.

Tower Semiconductor Price Performance

TSEM opened at $209.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.93 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $226.45 and a 200-day moving average of $232.48. The company has a quick ratio of 4.31, a current ratio of 4.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Tower Semiconductor has a 12-month low of $71.64 and a 12-month high of $319.94.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $460.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $454.68 million. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 9.83% and a net margin of 16.94%. Tower Semiconductor's revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Tower Semiconductor will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Yoav Chelouche sold 232 shares of Tower Semiconductor 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 transaction, the director directly owned 33,734 shares in the company, valued at $7,254,834.04. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Russell Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total value of $25,883,484.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,788 shares in the company, valued at $130,822,531.92. This trade represents a 16.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 181,767 shares of company stock worth $45,610,065 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tower Semiconductor

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 34.2% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 158,901 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $37,115,000 after purchasing an additional 40,495 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Tower Semiconductor by 21.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,710 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 319 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,295 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in Tower Semiconductor in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,592,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.51% of the company's stock.

Tower Semiconductor Company Profile

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israel-based specialty semiconductor foundry that manufactures integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, integrated device manufacturers and other technology companies. Rather than selling products under a broad consumer brand, Tower provides wafer fabrication, process technology and manufacturing services tailored to customers' chip designs.

The company specializes in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, radio-frequency components, power-management devices, CMOS image sensors and other specialty technologies.

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