Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) Short Interest Down 15.8% in April

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 884,200 shares, a decline of 15.8% from the March 31st total of 1,050,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 467,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

SIMO traded up $0.40 on Thursday, reaching $53.25. The company had a trading volume of 263,923 shares, compared to its average volume of 458,759. Silicon Motion Technology has a 52-week low of $37.21 and a 52-week high of $85.87. The company has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.50.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $166.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $162.69 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The firm's revenue was down 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Silicon Motion Technology will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on SIMO shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Silicon Motion Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Silicon Motion Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on 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 raised their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $75.88.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SIMO. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,948 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $2,183,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Silicon Motion Technology by 21.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 200,016 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $12,149,000 after buying an additional 35,741 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 123.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,135,738 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock valued at $61,387,000 after purchasing an additional 55,363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 65.1% during the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 9,000 shares of the semiconductor producer's stock worth $486,000 after acquiring an additional 3,550 shares during the period. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Silicon Motion Technology

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.