Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM)

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM - Free Report) in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $270.00 price target on the semiconductor company's stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Susquehanna set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $240.00 price objective (up from $215.00) on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $236.25.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Trading Down 2.1%

NYSE:TSM traded down $5.20 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $240.40. 16,235,822 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,174,848. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.90, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has a 52 week low of $133.57 and a 52 week high of $248.28. The firm's 50 day moving average is $211.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $193.43. The company has a quick ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 2.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $30.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.50 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing had a net margin of 41.67% and a return on equity of 31.43%. The firm's revenue was up 44.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.48 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will post 9.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a dividend of $0.6499 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's payout ratio is 31.75%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSM. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC lifted its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 16,500.0% during the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 6,707,064 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,113,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,666,660 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 55.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,306,108 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $2,872,814,000 after acquiring an additional 6,180,445 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 67.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,365,404 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $2,047,065,000 after acquiring an additional 4,158,772 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing during the first quarter valued at approximately $482,676,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 58,547,257 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $11,562,498,000 after acquiring an additional 2,572,488 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 16.51% of the company's stock.

About Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

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.