ACM Research Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:ACMR)

ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors bought 8,911 call options on the company. This is an increase of 62% compared to the typical volume of 5,499 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at ACM Research

In other news, Director Haiping Dun sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.22, for a total transaction of $331,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $331,100. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Charles C. Pappis sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.00, for a total value of $260,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $260,000. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 128,752 shares of company stock valued at $11,012,198 over the last ninety days. 24.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ACM Research

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACMR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ACM Research by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,972,103 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $196,149,000 after acquiring an additional 125,690 shares in the last quarter. Triata Capital Ltd grew its holdings in ACM Research by 26.0% in the third quarter. Triata Capital Ltd now owns 2,003,225 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $78,386,000 after purchasing an additional 413,000 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in ACM Research by 16,878.8% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,860,874 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $70,583,000 after purchasing an additional 1,849,914 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of ACM Research by 58.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,392,306 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $54,926,000 after buying an additional 515,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of ACM Research by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,342,899 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $52,986,000 after buying an additional 19,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.75% of the company’s stock.

ACM Research Trading Down 16.6%

Shares of ACMR stock opened at $97.77 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $80.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.75. ACM Research has a 1-year low of $23.03 and a 1-year high of $127.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a PE ratio of 74.63 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 3.51 and a quick ratio of 2.52.

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $231.26 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.69 million. ACM Research had a return on equity of 4.17% and a net margin of 9.48%.ACM Research’s quarterly revenue was up 34.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ACM Research will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACMR. Roth Mkm set a $125.00 target price on ACM Research and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 price target (up from $90.00) on shares of ACM Research in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded ACM Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ACM Research from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ACM Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $127.50.

ACM Research Company Profile

ACM Research, Inc (NASDAQ:ACMR) designs, develops and markets wet processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. The company focuses on advanced wafer cleaning technologies that address critical contamination-control requirements for logic, memory and advanced packaging applications. Since its founding in 2003, ACM Research has engineered modular platform tools that can be configured for a range of spin, scrub and batch cleaning processes.

Its product portfolio encompasses single-wafer spin cleaning systems featuring high-purity megasonic capabilities, dynamic chemical scrubbing modules for post-CMP residue removal and batch-process cleaning equipment designed for high-throughput production environments.