Freedom Capital Upgrades FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM) to “Strong-Buy”

by · The Markets Daily

FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM – Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Freedom Capital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on FORM. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of FormFactor from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of FormFactor in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of FormFactor from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 19th. Evercore set a $150.00 target price on shares of FormFactor in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $115.00 price objective on FormFactor in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FormFactor presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $139.73.

View Our Latest Stock Report on FORM

FormFactor Stock Up 10.9%

FORM stock opened at $96.79 on Monday. FormFactor has a fifty-two week low of $47.33 and a fifty-two week high of $160.27. The company has a quick ratio of 3.02, a current ratio of 3.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a PE ratio of 44.20 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $115.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.63.

FormFactor (NASDAQ:FORM – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.18. FormFactor had a net margin of 17.72% and a return on equity of 18.40%. The company had revenue of $280.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $270.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. FormFactor’s revenue was up 38.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FormFactor will post 2.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at FormFactor

In related news, Director Kelley Steven-Waiss sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.10, for a total value of $201,810.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 24,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,347,338.60. This represents a 7.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mike Slessor sold 11,098 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.20, for a total transaction of $1,389,469.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 455,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,040,619.20. This represents a 2.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 46,710 shares of company stock valued at $5,520,564 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FormFactor

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FORM. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of FormFactor in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,676,772,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of FormFactor during the second quarter worth $27,000,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of FormFactor during the second quarter worth about $285,257,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in FormFactor in the second quarter valued at $270,300,000. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in FormFactor by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 659,667 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $98,495,000 after purchasing an additional 19,745 shares during the last quarter. 98.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About FormFactor

(Get Free Report)

FormFactor, Inc is a semiconductor test and measurement company that designs and manufactures equipment and components used to evaluate integrated circuits during the wafer fabrication and production process. Its products help semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers measure electrical performance, identify defects and improve the development and manufacturing of advanced chips.

The company’s portfolio includes probe cards used for wafer-level testing, as well as probe stations, analytical systems and related accessories for semiconductor engineering and production applications.

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