Financial Counselors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

Financial Counselors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 415 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Microchip Technology were worth $953,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,714,851 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $979,918,000 after purchasing an additional 217,223 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,553,578 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $567,576,000 after purchasing an additional 123,806 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Microchip Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $412,120,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,462,638 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $348,309,000 after purchasing an additional 322,540 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Microchip Technology in the 3rd quarter worth about $225,800,000. 91.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 1,970 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.90, for a total transaction of $165,283.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,759,722.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 1,970 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.90, for a total value of $165,283.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 32,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,759,722.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Karlton D. Johnson sold 370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.00, for a total value of $31,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,276. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MCHP. UBS Group cut their price objective on Microchip Technology from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Microchip Technology in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Microchip Technology from $87.00 to $77.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Microchip Technology in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Microchip Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.33.

Microchip Technology Stock Performance

MCHP stock opened at $85.64 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $46.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.65. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a 12-month low of $68.75 and a 12-month high of $94.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.02.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The semiconductor company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. Microchip Technology had a return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 27.59%. The business’s revenue was down 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.48 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Microchip Technology Incorporated will post 4.64 EPS for the current year.

Microchip Technology Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is an increase from Microchip Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Microchip Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.06%.

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Incorporated develops, manufactures, and sells 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 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.