Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 61,255 Shares of Rambus, Inc. $RMBS

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) by 13.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 411,719 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 61,255 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Rambus were worth $37,833,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of RMBS. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Rambus by 572.7% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,822,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,551,159 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Rambus by 196.0% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,550,665 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $161,579,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,776 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Rambus in the 3rd quarter valued at about $93,962,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Rambus by 183.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 894,906 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $93,249,000 after buying an additional 578,839 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Rambus by 192.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 701,746 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,926,000 after buying an additional 462,116 shares during the period. 88.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on RMBS. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Rambus from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Rambus from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Zacks Research raised shares of Rambus to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. William Blair began coverage on shares of Rambus in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Rambus from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Luc Seraphin sold 5,426 shares of Rambus stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.65, for a total transaction of $470,162.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 345,767 shares in the company, valued at $29,960,710.55. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Desmond Lynch sold 4,273 shares of Rambus stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.53, for a total transaction of $433,837.69. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 63,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,459,135.54. This represents a 6.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 61,123 shares of company stock worth $6,295,577 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Rambus Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of Rambus stock opened at $129.24 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $104.61 and its 200 day moving average is $102.25. Rambus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.89 and a 1 year high of $161.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.98 billion, a PE ratio of 61.54 and a beta of 1.79.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. Rambus had a net margin of 31.90% and a return on equity of 17.41%. The business had revenue of $180.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.94 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Rambus, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Rambus Company Profile

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.