Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires 101,156 Shares of Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPWR)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPWR) by 39.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 358,777 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 101,156 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 0.74% of Monolithic Power Systems worth $212,288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Monolithic Power Systems by 120.0% in the 4th quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 44 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Monolithic Power Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Monolithic Power Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in shares of Monolithic Power Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Monolithic Power Systems by 60.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 109 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. 93.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPWR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Monolithic Power Systems from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Monolithic Power Systems from $700.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Monolithic Power Systems from $600.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $800.00 price target on shares of Monolithic Power Systems in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on Monolithic Power Systems in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $851.58.

Monolithic Power Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MPWR opened at $600.47 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $637.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $702.15. Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $546.71 and a fifty-two week high of $959.64. The company has a market capitalization of $28.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.03.

Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.01 by ($0.84). Monolithic Power Systems had a net margin of 80.95% and a return on equity of 20.36%. On average, analysts forecast that Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. will post 13.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Monolithic Power Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $1.56 dividend. This represents a $6.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. This is a positive change from Monolithic Power Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Monolithic Power Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.97%.

Insider Transactions at Monolithic Power Systems

In other news, EVP Maurice Sciammas sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.98, for a total transaction of $4,913,860.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,242,209.70. This represents a 30.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Monolithic Power Systems Company Profile

Monolithic Power Systems, Inc engages in the design, development, marketing, and sale of semiconductor-based power electronics solutions for the storage and computing, automotive, enterprise data, consumer, communications, and industrial markets. The company provides direct current (DC) to DC integrated circuits (ICs) that are used to convert and control voltages of various electronic systems, such as cloud-based CPU servers, server artificial intelligence applications, storage applications, commercial notebooks, digital cockpit, power sources, home appliances, 4G and 5G infrastructure, and satellite communications applications.