Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Holdings in Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) by 94.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 494,013 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 240,137 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Analog Devices were worth $104,958,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Analog Devices by 6.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,894,109 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $666,137,000 after purchasing an additional 180,870 shares during the last quarter. United Bank grew its position in Analog Devices by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 6,056 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Analog Devices by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 25,336 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,832,000 after buying an additional 582 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Analog Devices in the 3rd quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 1.5% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 71,981 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $16,568,000 after buying an additional 1,050 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Williams Trading set a $245.00 price target on Analog Devices in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Analog Devices from $250.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of Analog Devices from $245.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Analog Devices from $270.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Maxim Group began coverage on Analog Devices in a research report on Friday, February 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Analog Devices presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.41.

Insider Activity at Analog Devices

In related news, CEO Vincent Roche sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.12, for a total value of $2,091,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 64,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,575,652.16. This represents a 13.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analog Devices Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ ADI opened at $209.97 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $217.62 and a 200 day moving average of $220.15. Analog Devices, Inc. has a 12-month low of $182.57 and a 12-month high of $247.10. The stock has a market cap of $104.14 billion, a PE ratio of 66.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.07.

Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The semiconductor company reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Analog Devices had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 16.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Analog Devices, Inc. will post 7.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analog Devices Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.99 per share. This is a boost from Analog Devices’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Analog Devices’s payout ratio is presently 126.11%.

Analog Devices announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 18th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 9.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Analog Devices

Analog Devices, Inc designs, manufactures, tests, and markets integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystems products in the United States, rest of North and South America, Europe, Japan, China, and rest of Asia. The company provides data converter products, which translate real-world analog signals into digital data, as well as translates digital data into analog signals; power management and reference products for power conversion, driver monitoring, sequencing, and energy management applications in the automotive, communications, industrial, and consumer markets; and power ICs that include performance, integration, and software design simulation tools for accurate power supply designs.