United Microelectronics Co. (NYSE:UMC) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

United Microelectronics Co. (NYSE:UMC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $7.40.

UMC has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of United Microelectronics in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Wedbush cut shares of United Microelectronics from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of United Microelectronics from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On United Microelectronics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Savant Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of United Microelectronics in the 4th quarter worth about $66,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in United Microelectronics by 178.5% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 383,842 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,506,000 after purchasing an additional 246,034 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in United Microelectronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $403,000. Banque Pictet & Cie SA grew its stake in shares of United Microelectronics by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 74,509 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $484,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of United Microelectronics by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 757,913 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,919,000 after buying an additional 104,232 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.05% of the company’s stock.

United Microelectronics Stock Up 1.5%

United Microelectronics stock opened at $7.75 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.35, a PEG ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $7.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.73. United Microelectronics has a 52 week low of $5.61 and a 52 week high of $9.00.

United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.63 billion. United Microelectronics had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 20.35%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 EPS. On average, analysts expect that United Microelectronics will post 0.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

United Microelectronics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 24th will be given a dividend of $0.3661 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 24th. This represents a yield of 4.6%. This is a positive change from United Microelectronics’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. United Microelectronics’s payout ratio is 64.81%.

United Microelectronics Company Profile

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers.