Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Sells 17,300 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. cut its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO - Free Report) by 9.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 162,700 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock after selling 17,300 shares during the quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. owned 0.48% of Silicon Motion Technology worth $8,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Perigon Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the fourth quarter valued at $431,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 5,668 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the fourth quarter valued at $209,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Silicon Motion Technology by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 58,823 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $3,179,000 after buying an additional 3,875 shares during the last quarter. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Silicon Motion Technology Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ:SIMO traded down $0.37 on Wednesday, hitting $64.73. 112,565 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 381,986. The company has a market cap of $2.20 billion, a PE ratio of 24.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $48.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.59. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a 1 year low of $37.21 and a 1 year high of $85.87.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $166.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $162.69 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 11.29%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor producer to purchase up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut 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 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, B. Riley boosted their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $75.88.

Silicon Motion Technology 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.