Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,990,703 shares, a decrease of 13.4% from the March 15th total of 6,914,782 shares. Currently, 5.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,899,690 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Rambus Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of RMBS stock opened at $120.03 on Friday. Rambus has a fifty-two week low of $43.21 and a fifty-two week high of $135.75. The stock has a market cap of $12.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.89 and a beta of 1.63. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $97.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.55.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 2nd. The semiconductor company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68. The firm had revenue of $190.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $188.21 million. Rambus had a return on equity of 17.69% and a net margin of 32.57%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Rambus will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on RMBS. Zacks Research upgraded Rambus to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Evercore dropped their price target on Rambus from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Rambus from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings cut Rambus from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, William Blair began coverage on Rambus in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rambus news, Director Meera Rao sold 8,538 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.08, for a total value of $1,008,167.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 22,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,709,463.68. This represents a 27.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Desmond Lynch sold 4,273 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.53, for a total value of $433,837.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 63,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,459,135.54. This represents a 6.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 58,151 shares of company stock worth $5,848,885. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Rambus

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Rambus by 70.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,148,653 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $381,220,000 after buying an additional 1,716,621 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Rambus in the 4th quarter worth about $156,356,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Rambus by 572.7% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,822,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,856,000 after buying an additional 1,551,159 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Rambus by 196.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,550,665 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $161,579,000 after buying an additional 1,026,776 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Rambus in the 3rd quarter worth about $93,962,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.54% of the company’s stock.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.