Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC Buys Shares of 3,518 Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI)

Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC bought a new stake in Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,518 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $747,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,571,586 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,195,302,000 after purchasing an additional 106,664 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,364,446 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,377,094,000 after purchasing an additional 135,838 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 14.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,176,877 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,169,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189,940 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 9.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,388,628 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,700,640,000 after purchasing an additional 665,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Analog Devices by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,981,475 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,058,364,000 after purchasing an additional 226,716 shares in the last quarter. 86.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ADI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Analog Devices from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Benchmark lifted their target price on Analog Devices from $245.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Analog Devices from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Analog Devices in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on Analog Devices from $230.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Analog Devices

In other news, CEO Vincent Roche sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.49, for a total transaction of $2,154,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 21,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,737,116.67. This represents a 31.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analog Devices Stock Performance

ADI opened at $225.86 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $112.02 billion, a PE ratio of 71.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Analog Devices, Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.57 and a 1 year high of $247.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $218.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $221.17.

Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The semiconductor company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.09. Analog Devices had a return on equity of 8.91% and a net margin of 16.75%. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Analog Devices, Inc. will post 7.14 EPS for the current year.

Analog Devices Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be given a $0.99 dividend. This represents a $3.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. This is a boost from Analog Devices’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. Analog Devices’s dividend payout ratio is 126.11%.

Analog Devices declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 18th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 9.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Analog Devices

Analog Devices, Inc designs, manufactures, tests, and markets integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystems products in the United States, rest of North and South America, Europe, Japan, China, and rest of Asia. The company provides data converter products, which translate real-world analog signals into digital data, as well as translates digital data into analog signals; power management and reference products for power conversion, driver monitoring, sequencing, and energy management applications in the automotive, communications, industrial, and consumer markets; and power ICs that include performance, integration, and software design simulation tools for accurate power supply designs.