Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on GSI Technology (NASDAQ:GSIT)

Key Points

• Unusually heavy call option buying hit GSI Technology on Monday, with 5,938 call contracts traded—about 176% above its average daily volume.
• The stock jumped sharply to $11.53 on heavy trading volume, far above its recent moving averages and close to its 12-month range high.
• Despite the trading surge, sentiment remains cautious: Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating, while insiders and some institutions have recently adjusted their holdings.

GSI Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSIT - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 5,938 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 176% compared to the average daily volume of 2,150 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of GSI Technology in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, GSI Technology has an average rating of "Sell".

GSI Technology Stock Performance

Shares of GSIT stock traded up $3.08 on Monday, hitting $11.53. The company had a trading volume of 4,817,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,170,542. The firm has a market cap of $417.27 million, a P/E ratio of -27.58 and a beta of 1.94. The stock's 50-day moving average is $6.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.28. GSI Technology has a twelve month low of $2.82 and a twelve month high of $18.15.

GSI Technology (NASDAQ:GSIT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $6.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.30 million. GSI Technology had a negative return on equity of 24.91% and a negative net margin of 52.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GSI Technology news, VP Bor-Tay Wu sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.66, for a total value of $346,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 912,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,902,250. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Patrick T. Chuang sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.37, for a total value of $167,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 15,166 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $126,939.42. The trade was a 56.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 127,251 shares of company stock valued at $1,187,290 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 25.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GSI Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of GSI Technology by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 937,711 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $3,451,000 after purchasing an additional 75,882 shares in the last quarter. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of GSI Technology by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC now owns 785,706 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $4,039,000 after purchasing an additional 11,200 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in shares of GSI Technology by 112.7% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 727,077 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $4,515,000 after purchasing an additional 385,185 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in shares of GSI Technology by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 391,258 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,440,000 after purchasing an additional 124,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concentric Capital Strategies LP bought a new stake in shares of GSI Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,116,000. Institutional investors own 33.15% of the company's stock.

GSI Technology Company Profile

GSI Technology, Inc is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the design and development of high-performance memory products. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company was founded in 1995 and has focused its efforts on content addressable memory (CAM) and high-speed SRAM (static random-access memory) solutions. As a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ under the ticker GSIT, GSI Technology leverages advanced architectures to meet demanding data-processing requirements.

The company's core product portfolio includes ternary CAM (TCAM) devices, binary CAM (BCAM) devices and high-speed synchronous SRAM.

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