Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Amkor Technology Price Performance

AMKR opened at $19.59 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a PE ratio of 13.70 and a beta of 1.88. Amkor Technology has a 1 year low of $18.87 and a 1 year high of $44.86.

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

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amkor Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Amkor Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Amkor Technology by 353.7% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 1,160 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Amkor Technology by 421.0% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in Amkor Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Amkor Technology by 46.3% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.76% of the company’s stock.

Amkor Technology Company Profile

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.