Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) Stock Price

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) had its price target boosted by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $60.00 to $66.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.89% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on MCHP. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Microchip Technology from $71.00 to $58.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective (down from $101.00) on shares of Microchip Technology in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Microchip Technology from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Microchip Technology from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Microchip Technology presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.37.

Microchip Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Microchip Technology stock opened at $57.95 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.20. Microchip Technology has a 12 month low of $50.21 and a 12 month high of $100.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.48 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.25 and a quick ratio of 1.23.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.15). Microchip Technology had a net margin of 6.49% and a return on equity of 12.62%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Microchip Technology will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 3,724 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.88, for a total transaction of $226,717.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 33,272 shares in the company, valued at $2,025,599.36. The trade was a 10.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Microchip Technology

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Microchip Technology by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,912,345 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,952,123,000 after acquiring an additional 569,699 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Microchip Technology by 39.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,093,007 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $636,184,000 after purchasing an additional 3,131,807 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Microchip Technology by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,247,908 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $587,718,000 after purchasing an additional 890,819 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Microchip Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $452,627,000. Finally, FIL Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,877,482 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $451,774,000 after buying an additional 653,705 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Incorporated engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of smart, connected, and secure embedded control solutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company offers general purpose 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit mixed-signal microcontrollers; 32-bit embedded mixed-signal microprocessors; and specialized microcontrollers for automotive, industrial, computing, communications, lighting, power supplies, motor control, human machine interface, security, wired connectivity, and wireless connectivity applications.