Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) Stock Falls 8.6% – Time to Sell?

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM)’s share price fell 8.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $228.60 and last traded at $227.0170. 781,578 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 2,240,193 shares. The stock had previously closed at $248.25.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays started coverage on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Friday, September 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $310.00 price objective for the company. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Tower Semiconductor to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Tower Semiconductor from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $316.00.

Tower Semiconductor Trading Down 0.0%

The company’s 50-day moving average is $227.49 and its 200-day moving average is $231.06. The firm has a market cap of $25.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.40 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 4.31 and a current ratio of 4.91.

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TSEM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.12. Tower Semiconductor had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 9.83%. The firm had revenue of $460.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $454.68 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tower Semiconductor

In related news, CEO Russell Ellwanger sold 104,226 shares of Tower Semiconductor stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.34, for a total value of $25,883,484.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,788 shares in the company, valued at $130,822,531.92. This trade represents a 16.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Yoav Chelouche sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.06, for a total value of $49,893.92. Following the sale, the director directly owned 33,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,254,834.04. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 181,767 shares of company stock valued at $45,610,065 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSEM. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 0.6% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,081,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,723,000 after purchasing an additional 6,458 shares during the period. Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor in the 4th quarter valued at $172,848,000. E20 Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor in the 1st quarter valued at $107,708,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Tower Semiconductor during the 1st quarter worth $85,435,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in Tower Semiconductor by 86.0% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 414,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $70,625,000 after buying an additional 191,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.51% of the company’s stock.

Tower Semiconductor Company Profile

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israel-based specialty semiconductor foundry that manufactures integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, integrated device manufacturers and other technology companies. Rather than selling products under a broad consumer brand, Tower provides wafer fabrication, process technology and manufacturing services tailored to customers’ chip designs.

The company specializes in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, radio-frequency components, power-management devices, CMOS image sensors and other specialty technologies.