Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) Short Interest Update

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,510,000 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the September 15th total of 3,340,000 shares. Currently, 6.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 538,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.5 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Craig Hallum lowered their target price on Kulicke and Soffa Industries from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Kulicke and Soffa Industries from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.33.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ KLIC opened at $45.18 on Friday. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has a 12 month low of $38.20 and a 12 month high of $56.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -37.97 and a beta of 1.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.58.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $181.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.28 million. Kulicke and Soffa Industries had a positive return on equity of 0.61% and a negative net margin of 7.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Kulicke and Soffa Industries will post -0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. Kulicke and Soffa Industries’s payout ratio is -67.23%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KLIC. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Kulicke and Soffa Industries by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 100,880 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,520,000 after acquiring an additional 6,290 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Kulicke and Soffa Industries by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,713,210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $148,467,000 after purchasing an additional 42,778 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in Kulicke and Soffa Industries by 6,000.0% in the 4th quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 61,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,338,000 after purchasing an additional 60,000 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Kulicke and Soffa Industries by 53.4% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,195 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. MA boosted its stake in Kulicke and Soffa Industries by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 138,527 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries Company Profile

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and tools used to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates through four segments: Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment, Advanced Solutions, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The company offers ball bonding equipment, wafer level bonding equipment, wedge bonding equipment; and advanced display, die-attach, and thermocompression systems and solutions, as well as tools, spares and services for equipment.