Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) Shares Down 1.9% - Time to Sell?

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 1.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $205.92 and last traded at $207.31. 13,238,249 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 15,159,652 shares. The stock had previously closed at $211.42.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on TSM. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna restated a "buy" rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, November 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $214.00.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.57 and a quick ratio of 2.30. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $196.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $182.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.07.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The semiconductor company reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.20. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing had a return on equity of 27.44% and a net margin of 39.10%. The company had revenue of $23.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $22.72 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited will post 6.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.5484 dividend. This is an increase from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's dividend payout ratio is presently 35.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSM. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 55,974,769 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $9,721,138,000 after acquiring an additional 3,783,802 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 1.3% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 28,767,106 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $4,995,984,000 after purchasing an additional 359,854 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 18,289,993 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $3,176,423,000 after purchasing an additional 122,828 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 9,738,181 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,733,104,000 after buying an additional 1,206,359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 19.9% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,485,854 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,126,420,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,425 shares in the last quarter. 16.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Profile

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, packages, tests, and sells integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices in Taiwan, China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, the United States, and internationally. It provides a range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, bipolar CMOS mixed-signal, and others.