ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $17.48, but opened at $19.53. ACM Research shares last traded at $19.76, with a volume of 1,373,741 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACMR shares. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of ACM Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $25.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Craig Hallum cut shares of ACM Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $30.00 to $18.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.00.

ACM Research Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a PE ratio of 15.68 and a beta of 1.48. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.02.

ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.35. ACM Research had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The business had revenue of $204.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $191.18 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ACM Research, Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at ACM Research

In other ACM Research news, Director Haiping Dun sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.12, for a total transaction of $286,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 774,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,801,709.76. This trade represents a 1.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider David H. Wang sold 56,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.89, for a total transaction of $1,006,312.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 654,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,704,639.84. This represents a 7.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 127,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,366,363. Corporate insiders own 31.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ACMR. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of ACM Research in the 2nd quarter worth about $202,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of ACM Research by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 21,736 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of ACM Research in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $413,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ACM Research by 39.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 178,460 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $4,115,000 after purchasing an additional 50,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ACM Research by 283.9% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 924,104 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $21,310,000 after purchasing an additional 683,361 shares during the last quarter. 66.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About ACM Research

ACM Research, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells single-wafer wet cleaning equipment for enhancing the manufacturing process and yield for integrated chips worldwide. It offers space alternated phase shift technology for flat and patterned wafer surfaces, which employs alternating phases of megasonic waves to deliver megasonic energy in a uniform manner on a microscopic level; timely energized bubble oscillation technology for patterned wafer surfaces at advanced process nodes, which provides cleaning for 2D and 3D patterned wafers; Tahoe technology for delivering cleaning performance using less sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide; and electro-chemical plating technology for advanced metal plating.