Short Interest in Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Grows By 33.0%

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,260,000 shares, an increase of 33.0% from the February 28th total of 5,460,000 shares. Currently, 7.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,940,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius Research lowered shares of Amkor Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. B. Riley decreased their target price on Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Amkor Technology in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Melius lowered Amkor Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Amkor Technology news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total value of $119,056.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,105.72. The trade was a 79.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.85, for a total value of $18,999,995.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,020,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,956,009.50. This trade represents a 7.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 31.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMKR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Amkor Technology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,479,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Amkor Technology by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,664,226 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $402,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092,002 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Amkor Technology by 522.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,134,106 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $34,704,000 after acquiring an additional 951,764 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Amkor Technology by 212.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,361,084 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $41,647,000 after purchasing an additional 925,644 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Amkor Technology by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,081,481 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $104,853,000 after purchasing an additional 556,761 shares during the period. 42.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Amkor Technology Stock Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ AMKR opened at $17.87 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 2.11. Amkor Technology has a 52 week low of $17.73 and a 52 week high of $44.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.44 and a beta of 1.88. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.01 and a 200-day moving average of $25.70.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 5.60%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.0827 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.85%. Amkor Technology’s dividend payout ratio is 23.08%.

Amkor Technology Company Profile

Amkor Technology, Inc provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test, and drop shipment services; flip chip scale package products for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory digital baseband, and as applications processors in mobile devices; flip-chip ball grid array packages for various networking, storage, computing, automotive, and consumer applications; and memory products for system memory or platform data storage.