Short Interest in Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA) Expands By 21.9%

Key Points

• Short interest in Ambarella rose 21.9% in April to 2,556,508 shares, equal to 6.2% of shares sold short and a days-to-cover ratio of 3.7.
• Ambarella beat the quarter with $0.13 EPS vs. $0.10 expected and revenue of $100.87M (up 20.1% YoY), but the company remains unprofitable with a negative net margin and analysts forecast a -1.27 EPS for the year.
• Insiders have sold about 103,899 shares (~$5.92M) in the last 90 days while institutions own 82.09% of the stock, and analysts' consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $96.00.

Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 2,556,508 shares, an increase of 21.9% from the March 31st total of 2,096,416 shares. Currently, 6.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 689,661 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Ambarella Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:AMBA opened at $65.94 on Thursday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $57.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.97. Ambarella has a 52 week low of $45.20 and a 52 week high of $96.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -37.04 and a beta of 2.01.

Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $100.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $100.17 million. Ambarella had a negative net margin of 19.42% and a negative return on equity of 12.16%. The business's revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ambarella will post -1.27 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ambarella

In other Ambarella news, VP Chi-Hong Ju sold 2,155 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.14, for a total value of $116,671.70. Following the sale, the vice president owned 167,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,092,325.74. This trade represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John Alexander Young sold 1,971 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $118,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 117,623 shares in the company, valued at $7,057,380. The trade was a 1.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 103,899 shares of company stock worth $5,921,677 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 5.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ambarella by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,480,285 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $388,223,000 after acquiring an additional 311,649 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ambarella by 8.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,855,170 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $122,562,000 after acquiring an additional 151,694 shares in the last quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Ambarella by 30.8% in the fourth quarter. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,587,081 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $112,429,000 after acquiring an additional 373,734 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Ambarella by 4.0% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,371,511 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $90,609,000 after acquiring an additional 52,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ambarella by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,020,527 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $72,305,000 after acquiring an additional 35,510 shares in the last quarter. 82.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on AMBA. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Ambarella in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Ambarella in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Consumer Edge restated a "buy" rating on shares of Ambarella in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ambarella presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $96.00.

Ambarella Company Profile

Ambarella, Inc is a global semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, specializing in video compression, image processing and computer vision technologies. The company designs low-power, high-definition system-on-chip (SoC) solutions that enable the capture, processing and streaming of video in a variety of embedded applications. Ambarella's platforms combine advanced video encoding, multi-core central processing units and hardware accelerators to deliver high-resolution imaging with low power consumption.

Ambarella's product portfolio caters to multiple markets, including security and surveillance, automotive vision, wearable cameras, drones and robotics.

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