Merit Financial Group LLC Sells 89 Shares of NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI)

Merit Financial Group LLC cut its holdings in NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,460 shares of the semiconductor provider’s stock after selling 89 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NXP Semiconductors were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in NXP Semiconductors by 46.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 89,297 shares of the semiconductor provider’s stock valued at $20,510,000 after acquiring an additional 28,518 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of NXP Semiconductors by 29.7% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 125,594 shares of the semiconductor provider’s stock worth $28,846,000 after purchasing an additional 28,758 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of NXP Semiconductors by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,788 shares of the semiconductor provider’s stock worth $1,100,000 after buying an additional 1,019 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in NXP Semiconductors by 33.4% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 136,364 shares of the semiconductor provider’s stock valued at $31,320,000 after buying an additional 34,131 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in NXP Semiconductors during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $845,000. 90.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of NXP Semiconductors from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Susquehanna upped their price target on NXP Semiconductors from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on NXP Semiconductors from $221.00 to $224.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of NXP Semiconductors from $240.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of NXP Semiconductors from $250.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $257.72.

NXP Semiconductors Price Performance

NXPI stock opened at $260.21 on Thursday. NXP Semiconductors has a 52 week low of $161.23 and a 52 week high of $264.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $66.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $243.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $222.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The semiconductor provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.04. NXP Semiconductors had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 21.24%. The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.40 billion. Analysts anticipate that NXP Semiconductors will post 12.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NXP Semiconductors Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were paid a dividend of $1.014 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $4.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. NXP Semiconductors’s dividend payout ratio is 37.40%.

NXP Semiconductors Profile

NXP Semiconductors N.V. offers various semiconductor products. The company's product portfolio includes microcontrollers; application processors, including i.MX application processors, and i.MX 8 and 9 family of applications processors; communication processors; wireless connectivity solutions, such as near field communications, ultra-wideband, Bluetooth low-energy, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth integrated SoCs; analog and interface devices; radio frequency power amplifiers; and security controllers, as well as semiconductor-based environmental and inertial sensors, including pressure, inertial, magnetic, and gyroscopic sensors.