DF Dent & Co. Inc. Acquires 46,608 Shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

DF Dent & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 392,158 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 46,608 shares during the quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. owned about 0.07% of Microchip Technology worth $22,490,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MCHP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,912,345 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,952,123,000 after buying an additional 569,699 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Microchip Technology by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,093,007 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $636,184,000 after acquiring an additional 3,131,807 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Microchip Technology in the fourth quarter valued at $452,627,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Microchip Technology by 90.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,360,805 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $364,792,000 after purchasing an additional 3,013,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in Microchip Technology by 273.2% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 5,345,096 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $306,541,000 after purchasing an additional 3,912,895 shares during the last quarter. 91.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 3,724 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.88, for a total transaction of $226,717.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,025,599.36. This trade represents a 10.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MCHP. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Microchip Technology from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Microchip Technology from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Microchip Technology from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (down from $95.00) on shares of Microchip Technology in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.37.

Microchip Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MCHP opened at $48.93 on Thursday. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a 1 year low of $46.83 and a 1 year high of $100.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.38 and a beta of 1.52. The company’s 50-day moving average is $55.07 and its 200 day moving average is $63.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.25 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.15). Microchip Technology had a return on equity of 12.62% and a net margin of 6.49%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Microchip Technology Incorporated will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Microchip Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were given a dividend of $0.455 per share. This represents a $1.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Microchip Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 325.00%.

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Incorporated engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of smart, connected, and secure embedded control solutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company offers general purpose 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit mixed-signal microcontrollers; 32-bit embedded mixed-signal microprocessors; and specialized microcontrollers for automotive, industrial, computing, communications, lighting, power supplies, motor control, human machine interface, security, wired connectivity, and wireless connectivity applications.