Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $225.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on TSM. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $220.00.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of TSM opened at $211.52 on Thursday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has a twelve month low of $109.48 and a twelve month high of $222.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $198.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.44. The company has a market cap of $1.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.07.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The semiconductor company reported $2.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.08. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing had a net margin of 39.10% and a return on equity of 27.44%. As a group, analysts expect that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will post 6.92 EPS for the current year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a $0.5484 dividend. This is an increase from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s payout ratio is presently 30.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSM. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 7.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 55,974,769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,721,138,000 after purchasing an additional 3,783,802 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 1.3% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 28,767,106 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,995,984,000 after buying an additional 359,854 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 18,289,993 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,176,423,000 after acquiring an additional 122,828 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 9,738,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,733,104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,359 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,485,854 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,126,420,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,425 shares in the last quarter. 16.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, packages, tests, and sells integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices in Taiwan, China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, the United States, and internationally. It provides a range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, bipolar CMOS mixed-signal, and others.