Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) Trading 7.1% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) shares shot up 7.1% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $219.69 and last traded at $220.7990. Approximately 351,671 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 2,272,536 shares. The stock had previously closed at $206.16.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TSEM. Bank of America assumed coverage on Tower Semiconductor in a report on Friday, August 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $367.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Tower Semiconductor from $180.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Tower Semiconductor from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Barclays raised Tower Semiconductor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $290.67.

Tower Semiconductor Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 4.31 and a current ratio of 4.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.03 billion, a PE ratio of 88.02 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $230.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $214.13.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.12. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 9.83% and a net margin of 16.94%.The firm had revenue of $460.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $454.68 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. Tower Semiconductor’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Tower Semiconductor news, CEO Russell Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total transaction of $25,883,484.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,822,531.92. This represents a 16.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TSEM. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 793 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,860 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $745,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,053 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 8,815 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $637,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 7,848 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $922,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.51% of the company’s stock.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor, traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TSEM, is a specialty foundry company that provides analog and mixed-signal semiconductor manufacturing services to a broad array of customers worldwide. The company focuses on delivering tailored process technologies for high-growth markets, including radio frequency (RF), power management, imaging, automotive electronics, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. By combining deep process know-how with flexible manufacturing capabilities, Tower Semiconductor supports the development and volume production of advanced semiconductor devices for fabless and integrated device manufacturer customers.

The company’s technology portfolio spans standard and specialty processes such as CMOS, BiCMOS, high-voltage, radio frequency, silicon photonics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and image sensor production.