MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

MaxLinear, Inc (NASDAQ:MXL) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $31.73, but opened at $33.52. MaxLinear shares last traded at $33.9320, with a volume of 2,255,540 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MXL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on MaxLinear from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MaxLinear in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of MaxLinear in a research note on Monday. Finally, Benchmark increased their target price on MaxLinear from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.71.

MaxLinear Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $18.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.15 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.34.

MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $136.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $134.82 million. MaxLinear had a negative return on equity of 6.95% and a negative net margin of 29.23%.The company’s revenue was up 48.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.09) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MaxLinear, Inc will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MaxLinear

In other news, insider Steven G. Litchfield sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.50, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 368,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,446,370. This represents a 5.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 44,929 shares of company stock worth $746,456. 7.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MaxLinear

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MaxLinear by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,326,387 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $232,279,000 after buying an additional 605,903 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of MaxLinear by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,889,111 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $41,054,000 after buying an additional 628,719 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of MaxLinear by 419.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,149,589 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $37,467,000 after buying an additional 1,736,141 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MaxLinear by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,038,144 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,531,000 after buying an additional 28,548 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of MaxLinear by 31.8% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,826,259 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,366,000 after buying an additional 441,088 shares during the period. 90.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MaxLinear Company Profile

MaxLinear, Inc is a provider of radio-frequency (RF), analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuits for broadband communications, data center connectivity, and video infrastructure applications. The company’s product portfolio includes high-performance RF front-end modules, broadband power amplifiers, optical and Ethernet transceivers, and network processors designed to support demanding signal processing requirements.

MaxLinear’s semiconductor solutions are used by cable and satellite television operators, fiber-to-the-home service providers, network equipment manufacturers, and data center operators.