Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Barclays

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Barclays from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on TSEM. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings cut Tower Semiconductor from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. National Bank Financial raised shares of Tower Semiconductor to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Tower Semiconductor from $140.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Tower Semiconductor from $180.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.80.

Tower Semiconductor Stock Performance

Shares of Tower Semiconductor stock opened at $223.78 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $244.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $208.71. Tower Semiconductor has a 1-year low of $48.90 and a 1-year high of $319.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.91, a quick ratio of 4.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $25.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.45 and a beta of 0.90.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.12. Tower Semiconductor had a return on equity of 9.83% and a net margin of 16.94%.The company had revenue of $460.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $454.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Tower Semiconductor will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Russell Craig Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total transaction of $25,883,484.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,822,531.92. This represents a 16.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tower Semiconductor

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 3,222.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,682,152 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $549,779,000 after purchasing an additional 4,541,235 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Tower Semiconductor by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,338,080 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $507,317,000 after purchasing an additional 53,112 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Tower Semiconductor by 214.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,206,467 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $259,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,505,421 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,108,004 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $152,409,000 after purchasing an additional 15,461 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors bought a new stake in Tower Semiconductor during the 4th quarter valued at $222,530,000. Institutional investors own 70.51% of the company’s stock.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor, traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TSEM, is a specialty foundry company that provides analog and mixed-signal semiconductor manufacturing services to a broad array of customers worldwide. The company focuses on delivering tailored process technologies for high-growth markets, including radio frequency (RF), power management, imaging, automotive electronics, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. By combining deep process know-how with flexible manufacturing capabilities, Tower Semiconductor supports the development and volume production of advanced semiconductor devices for fabless and integrated device manufacturer customers.

The company’s technology portfolio spans standard and specialty processes such as CMOS, BiCMOS, high-voltage, radio frequency, silicon photonics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and image sensor production.