Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Sells 3,924 Shares of Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its position in Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,946 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 3,924 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microchip Technology were worth $4,504,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 9,415 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $849,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 3,904 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $274,266,959,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,910 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Microchip Technology by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,229 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Microchip Technology by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 7,096 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. 91.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Microchip Technology news, Director Karlton D. Johnson sold 370 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.00, for a total transaction of $31,080.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,276. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Microchip Technology news, Director Karlton D. Johnson sold 370 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.00, for a total transaction of $31,080.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,276. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO James Eric Bjornholt sold 1,970 shares of Microchip Technology stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.90, for a total transaction of $165,283.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,759,722.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Microchip Technology Price Performance

Microchip Technology stock opened at $81.68 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $86.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.27. Microchip Technology Incorporated has a 1 year low of $68.75 and a 1 year high of $94.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The semiconductor company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.04. Microchip Technology had a net margin of 27.59% and a return on equity of 45.59%. The firm had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.48 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Microchip Technology Incorporated will post 4.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microchip Technology Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a boost from Microchip Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Microchip Technology’s payout ratio is 42.06%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MCHP. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Microchip Technology from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Microchip Technology from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Microchip Technology in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Microchip Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.50.

Microchip Technology Company Profile

Microchip Technology Incorporated develops, manufactures, and sells smart, connected, and secure embedded control solutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company offers general purpose 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers; 32-bit embedded mixed-signal microprocessors; and specialized microcontrollers for automotive, industrial, computing, communications, lighting, power supplies, motor control, human machine interface, security, wired connectivity, and wireless connectivity applications.