Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) Share Price Crosses Below Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU) shares passed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $47.22 and traded as low as $43.15. Cohu shares last traded at $43.98, with a volume of 1,515,553 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on COHU. Zacks Research cut shares of Cohu from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cohu from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Cohu from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cohu in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Cohu in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cohu presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.38.

Cohu Trading Down 12.1%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $56.70 and a 200 day moving average of $47.22. The company has a current ratio of 5.16, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -84.58 and a beta of 1.60.

Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.08. Cohu had a positive return on equity of 1.47% and a negative net margin of 3.97%. The firm had revenue of $172.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.25 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.06) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 37.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cohu, Inc. will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cohu

In related news, CEO Luis Muller sold 21,662 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.00, for a total transaction of $1,581,326.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 822,927 shares in the company, valued at $60,073,671. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 Christopher Bohrson sold 1,000 shares of Cohu stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.31, for a total transaction of $55,310.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 157,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,722,497.62. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold a total of 116,692 shares of company stock worth $7,374,716 in the last 90 days. 3.05% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cohu

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cohu during the second quarter worth approximately $545,932,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of Cohu in the second quarter valued at approximately $77,814,000. Emerald Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Cohu in the first quarter valued at approximately $23,887,000. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY acquired a new position in shares of Cohu in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,794,000. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cohu by 125.5% in the 1st quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 955,344 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,253,000 after acquiring an additional 531,661 shares in the last quarter. 94.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Cohu

Cohu, Inc is a global provider of semiconductor test and inspection equipment and related services. The company supplies solutions used by semiconductor manufacturers and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers to evaluate devices during production, helping improve manufacturing quality, reliability and efficiency.

Cohu’s product portfolio includes semiconductor test handlers, contactors and other interface products, inspection and metrology systems, thermal-management equipment, and software for test-data analysis and factory automation.