Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Acquires 172,867 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 33.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 696,293 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after buying an additional 172,867 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 2.07% of Silicon Motion Technology worth $37,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SIMO. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Silicon Motion Technology by 123.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 64.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Silicon Motion Technology in the 4th quarter worth $208,000. Choreo LLC purchased a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology in the 4th quarter worth $209,000. Finally, TradeLink Capital LLC bought a new stake in Silicon Motion Technology during the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on SIMO shares. StockNews.com downgraded Silicon Motion Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.63.

Silicon Motion Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ:SIMO opened at $41.12 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.97. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a 1 year low of $39.50 and a 1 year high of $85.87.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). Silicon Motion Technology had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 11.29%. As a group, analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 13th. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.35%.

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

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.