Van ECK Associates Corp Buys 5,993 Shares of Synaptics Incorporated $SYNA

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) by 37.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,942 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,993 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Synaptics were worth $2,726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Synaptics by 5.7% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 90,704 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,780,000 after acquiring an additional 4,917 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in Synaptics in the 2nd quarter worth about $205,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Synaptics by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 60,393 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,915,000 after purchasing an additional 5,393 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Synaptics by 472.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 89,490 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,801,000 after purchasing an additional 73,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Synaptics by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,352 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,514,000 after purchasing an additional 1,939 shares in the last quarter. 99.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Synaptics

In related news, insider Lisa Bodensteiner sold 6,056 shares of Synaptics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.62, for a total value of $627,522.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 78,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,148,055.08. The trade was a 7.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Esther Song sold 437 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.68, for a total value of $45,308.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 14,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,522,333.44. This represents a 2.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 15,867 shares of company stock worth $1,624,996 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Synaptics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SYNA opened at $97.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.72 and a beta of 1.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.98. Synaptics Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $58.28 and a fifty-two week high of $149.11.

Synaptics (NASDAQ:SYNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by $0.02. Synaptics had a negative net margin of 41.00% and a positive return on equity of 4.37%. The firm had revenue of $308.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $305.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Synaptics Incorporated will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on SYNA. Northland Securities cut shares of Synaptics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Synaptics from $128.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Synaptics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Weiss Ratings cut Synaptics from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Synaptics from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.91.

Synaptics Profile

Synaptics Incorporated is a global developer and supplier of human interface solutions for computing, networking, communications, and entertainment devices. The company specializes in the design, development and integration of custom chips and software that enable intuitive, natural user interactions. Synaptics solutions support touch, display, audio and biometrics functions, facilitating seamless human-to-machine interfaces across a broad range of end markets.

Key product offerings include touch controllers for laptops and tablets, capacitive touchscreens and display drivers for mobile devices, fingerprint sensors and secure authentication modules, as well as advanced audio processing and voice enhancement technologies.