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

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,260,000 shares, an increase of 33.0% from the February 28th total of 5,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,940,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.7 days. Currently, 7.3% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Activity at Amkor Technology

In other Amkor Technology news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total transaction of $119,056.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,105.72. This represents a 79.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of Amkor Technology stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $218,956,009.50. This 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 corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amkor Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Amkor Technology by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,664,226 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $402,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092,002 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Amkor Technology by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,778,790 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,767,000 after buying an additional 350,809 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,081,481 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $104,853,000 after purchasing an additional 556,761 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Amkor Technology by 5.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,355,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $102,688,000 after buying an additional 176,528 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Amkor Technology by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,709,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,594,000 after purchasing an additional 530,771 shares during the last quarter. 42.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Amkor Technology Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of AMKR opened at $18.11 on Wednesday. Amkor Technology has a 12 month low of $17.61 and a 12 month high of $44.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a PE ratio of 12.66 and a beta of 1.88. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $21.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.53.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Amkor Technology’s payout ratio is 23.08%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMKR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius lowered Amkor Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Amkor Technology from $42.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note 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 for the company 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

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.