Rhumbline Advisers Trims Stake in United Microelectronics Co. (NYSE:UMC)

Rhumbline Advisers trimmed its position in United Microelectronics Co. (NYSE:UMC) by 5.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 718,566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 39,347 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in United Microelectronics were worth $5,138,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in UMC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in United Microelectronics by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,947,754 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $103,501,000 after acquiring an additional 750,472 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of United Microelectronics by 3,091.8% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 14,329,393 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $92,998,000 after purchasing an additional 13,880,446 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of United Microelectronics by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,300,362 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $47,379,000 after purchasing an additional 237,024 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in United Microelectronics by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,547,867 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,026,000 after buying an additional 341,937 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in United Microelectronics by 238.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,184,444 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,667,000 after buying an additional 2,244,574 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on UMC. Wedbush cut United Microelectronics from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of United Microelectronics in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of United Microelectronics from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $7.40.

United Microelectronics Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NYSE:UMC opened at $8.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.35 billion, a PE ratio of 13.97, a PEG ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.14. United Microelectronics Co. has a 12-month low of $5.61 and a 12-month high of $9.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $7.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $6.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.63 billion. United Microelectronics had a net margin of 20.35% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that United Microelectronics Co. will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

United Microelectronics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 24th will be given a dividend of $0.3661 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 24th. This is a boost from United Microelectronics’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a dividend yield of 4.6%. United Microelectronics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.81%.

United Microelectronics Company Profile

United Microelectronics Corporation operates as a semiconductor wafer foundry in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides circuit design, mask tooling, wafer fabrication, and assembly and testing services. It serves fabless design companies and integrated device manufacturers.