Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,260,000 shares, a growth of 33.0% from the February 28th total of 5,460,000 shares. Currently, 7.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,940,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares in the company, valued at $30,105.72. This trade represents a 79.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of Amkor Technology stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 10,020,870 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $218,956,009.50. This represents a 7.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 31.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amkor Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMKR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Amkor Technology by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,664,226 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $402,414,000 after buying an additional 1,092,002 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Amkor Technology by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,778,790 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $122,767,000 after purchasing an additional 350,809 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Amkor Technology by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,355,817 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $102,688,000 after purchasing an additional 176,528 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Amkor Technology by 24.4% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,709,002 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $69,594,000 after purchasing an additional 530,771 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.76% of the company's stock.

Amkor Technology Stock Down 7.4 %

Shares of Amkor Technology stock traded down $1.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $14.67. 1,598,842 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,639,270. Amkor Technology has a 1 year low of $14.07 and a 1 year high of $44.86. The firm has a market cap of $3.62 billion, a PE ratio of 10.23 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock's fifty day moving average is $21.32 and its 200 day moving average is $25.42.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a net margin of 5.60% and a return on equity of 8.59%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.0827 per share. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Amkor Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMKR has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Amkor Technology from $42.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley dropped their price objective on Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius lowered Amkor Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Amkor Technology in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $31.50.

About Amkor Technology

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.