Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $191.46, but opened at $198.51. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing shares last traded at $198.28, with a volume of 3,293,492 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Susquehanna restated a “buy” rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.00.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Stock Up 5.0 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $193.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.09.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The semiconductor company reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $23.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.72 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing had a return on equity of 27.44% and a net margin of 39.10%. As a group, analysts forecast that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited will post 6.95 EPS for the current year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.5484 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. This is a boost from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s dividend payout ratio is 31.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 55,974,769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $9,721,138,000 after purchasing an additional 3,783,802 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 1.3% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 28,767,106 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,995,984,000 after acquiring an additional 359,854 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 18,289,993 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,176,423,000 after purchasing an additional 122,828 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 14.1% in the third quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 9,738,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,733,104,000 after buying an additional 1,206,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 19.9% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,485,854 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,126,420,000 after buying an additional 1,075,425 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 16.51% of the company’s stock.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Profile

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, packages, tests, and sells integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices in Taiwan, China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, the United States, and internationally. It provides a range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, bipolar CMOS mixed-signal, and others.