Wedbush Securities Inc. Buys 2,201 Shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO)

Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) by 48.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,709 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock after buying an additional 2,201 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Silicon Motion Technology were worth $363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,948 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $2,183,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 5,668 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 13,026 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $704,000 after purchasing an additional 467 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 123.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 877 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 85,265 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $4,609,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. 78.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Silicon Motion Technology Price Performance

Shares of SIMO opened at $42.35 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.47. Silicon Motion Technology Co. has a one year low of $36.95 and a one year high of $85.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.81.

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 net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 11.63%. Analysts expect that Silicon Motion Technology Co. will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan 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 plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 7th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.72%. Silicon Motion Technology’s payout ratio is 74.35%.

Silicon Motion Technology Profile

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.