Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,170,000 shares, a growth of 26.9% from the February 13th total of 1,710,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 780,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tower Semiconductor

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSEM. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new stake in Tower Semiconductor in the third quarter valued at about $330,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 12.8% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 12,820 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $567,000 after purchasing an additional 1,451 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 1.5% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,790,991 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $123,529,000 after purchasing an additional 40,038 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Tower Semiconductor by 0.3% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 225,107 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,963,000 after buying an additional 695 shares during the period. Finally, Senvest Management LLC raised its holdings in Tower Semiconductor by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 8,320,433 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $368,262,000 after buying an additional 138,807 shares during the last quarter. 70.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TSEM shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Tower Semiconductor in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Tower Semiconductor presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.00.

Tower Semiconductor Price Performance

Shares of TSEM traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $38.55. 44,317 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 538,567. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 6.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Tower Semiconductor has a fifty-two week low of $30.74 and a fifty-two week high of $55.31. The company has a market cap of $4.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.74 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $46.60 and its 200 day moving average is $46.21.

Tower Semiconductor Company Profile

Tower Semiconductor Ltd., an independent semiconductor foundry, focus on specialty process technologies to manufacture analog intensive mixed-signal semiconductor devices in Israel, the United States, Japan, Europe, and internationally. It provides various customizable process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management, and MEMS.