Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Short Interest Up 20.0% in February

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, a growth of 20.0% from the February 13th total of 4,550,000 shares. Currently, 5.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AMKR shares. Melius Research downgraded Amkor Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Amkor Technology from $42.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Amkor Technology in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, B. Riley lowered their target price on Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Amkor Technology has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amkor Technology news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total transaction of $119,056.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,105.72. The trade was a 79.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.85, for a total transaction of $18,999,995.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,020,870 shares in the company, valued at $218,956,009.50. This trade represents a 7.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 31.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amkor Technology

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Amkor Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Amkor Technology by 353.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Amkor Technology by 421.0% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 1,242 shares in the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Amkor Technology during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Amkor Technology by 46.3% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,834 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.76% of the company’s stock.

Amkor Technology Stock Performance

AMKR stock opened at $19.57 on Thursday. Amkor Technology has a twelve month low of $18.87 and a twelve month high of $44.86. The firm has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.69 and a beta of 1.88. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a net margin of 5.60% and a return on equity of 8.59%. Analysts predict that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.0827 dividend. This represents a $0.33 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Amkor Technology’s dividend payout ratio is 23.08%.

About Amkor Technology

Amkor Technology, Inc provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test, and drop shipment services; flip chip scale package products for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory digital baseband, and as applications processors in mobile devices; flip-chip ball grid array packages for various networking, storage, computing, automotive, and consumer applications; and memory products for system memory or platform data storage.