Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) Stock Price Down 18.6% – Time to Sell?

Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU) shares dropped 18.6% during trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $35.19 and last traded at $35.8160. Approximately 1,757,368 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 55% from the average session volume of 1,131,559 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.98.

Analyst Ratings Changes

COHU has been the subject of several recent research reports. B. Riley Financial lifted their target price on shares of Cohu from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cohu in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Zacks Research downgraded Cohu from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Cohu from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Cohu in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.38.

Cohu Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $56.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a PE ratio of -67.10 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a current ratio of 5.16, a quick ratio of 4.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Cohu (NASDAQ:COHU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $172.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.25 million. Cohu had a positive return on equity of 1.47% and a negative net margin of 3.97%. The firm’s revenue was up 37.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.06) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cohu, Inc. will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Luis Muller sold 21,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.00, for a total value of $1,581,326.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 822,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,073,671. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Christopher Bohrson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.31, for a total value of $55,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 157,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,722,497.62. The trade was a 0.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 116,692 shares of company stock valued at $7,374,716 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.05% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cohu

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in Cohu by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,510 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $171,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cohu in the third quarter valued at about $413,000. CenterBook Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Cohu during the third quarter worth about $264,000. Choreo LLC increased its stake in shares of Cohu by 12.0% during the third quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,187 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Moody Aldrich Partners LLC purchased a new position in Cohu during the third quarter worth about $3,324,000. 94.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cohu Company Profile

Cohu, Inc is a global provider of semiconductor test and inspection equipment and related services. The company supplies solutions used by semiconductor manufacturers and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers to evaluate devices during production, helping improve manufacturing quality, reliability and efficiency.

Cohu’s product portfolio includes semiconductor test handlers, contactors and other interface products, inspection and metrology systems, thermal-management equipment, and software for test-data analysis and factory automation.