Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in ACM Research, Inc. $ACMR

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) by 11.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 340,724 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 42,405 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in ACM Research were worth $13,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACMR. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in ACM Research in the 4th quarter valued at $1,054,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC boosted its stake in ACM Research by 71.8% during the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 188,500 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $7,436,000 after purchasing an additional 78,800 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ACM Research by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,972,103 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $196,149,000 after buying an additional 125,690 shares in the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ACM Research during the fourth quarter worth $17,212,000. Finally, Yong Rong HK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of ACM Research in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,367,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.75% of the company’s stock.

ACM Research Stock Down 4.6%

Shares of ACMR opened at $84.32 on Friday. ACM Research, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.03 and a 52-week high of $127.19. The company has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a PE ratio of 64.37 and a beta of 1.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $231.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.69 million. ACM Research had a return on equity of 4.17% and a net margin of 9.48%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ACM Research, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACMR. Seaport Research Partners started coverage on shares of ACM Research in a research note on Monday, May 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ACM Research in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of ACM Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ACM Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $125.00 target price on ACM Research and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ACM Research has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $127.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ACM Research news, insider Sotheara Cheav sold 13,351 shares of ACM Research stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.15, for a total transaction of $1,136,837.65. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 100,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,515,170.30. The trade was a 11.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Haiping Dun sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.22, for a total transaction of $331,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at $331,100. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 123,752 shares of company stock valued at $10,752,198 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 24.36% of the company’s stock.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc (NASDAQ:ACMR) designs, develops and markets wet processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. The company focuses on advanced wafer cleaning technologies that address critical contamination-control requirements for logic, memory and advanced packaging applications. Since its founding in 2003, ACM Research has engineered modular platform tools that can be configured for a range of spin, scrub and batch cleaning processes.

Its product portfolio encompasses single-wafer spin cleaning systems featuring high-purity megasonic capabilities, dynamic chemical scrubbing modules for post-CMP residue removal and batch-process cleaning equipment designed for high-throughput production environments.