The MarketBeat reports that Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ:$COHU) has received an average rating of ‘Buy’, averaging out the eight brokerages that currently monitor the stock. In total, the company has received 4 ‘Buy’ ratings, 2 ‘Hold’ ratings and 2 ‘Strong-Buy’ ratings. The brokerages also averaged out to a target price of $23.00.

Cohu is a company that operates in the semiconductor industry. They design, build and sell several different components used in the creation of semiconductors, including integrated circuits and light-emitting diodes.

On Monday, the stock opened at $22.70. They have a 52 week high of $23.53 and a 52 week low of $10.72. The company also has a 50 and 200 day moving average of $18.47 and $18.18 respectively. They have a Price/Earnings ratio of 32.80. Their market cap currently sits at $634.67 million. They sport a fairly safe beta at 0.88.

Multiple brokerages recently weighed in on the stock:

• Stifel Nicolaus, in a report on July 17th, restated a ‘Hold’ rating with a target price of $19.00.
• Zacks Investment Research, in a report from July 18th, dropped their rating dramatically from ‘Strong-Buy’ to ‘Hold’.
• Bidask Club, in a report on August 16th, increased its rating from ‘Sell’ to ‘Hold’.
• ValuEngine, in a report on September 1st, increased its rating from ‘Buy’ to ‘Strong-Buy’.
• Needham & Company LLC, in a report on September 18th, raised its rating from ‘Hold’ to ‘Buy’ and a target price of $24.00.

On July 27th, Cohu released its latest earnings results. The semiconductor company beat consensus estimates of $0.39 with an EPS of $0.42. The company reported a $0.23 EPS during the same quarter last year. The company just beat the total revenue consensus of $92.91 million with a reported $93.90 million, a 22.9% increase from the same quarter last year. The company also reported a Net Margin of 6.21% with a Return on Equity of 11.59%. A forecast of $1.54 EPS is being projected by analysts.

On October 20th, shareholders on record as of August 25th will receive a dividend. The dividend will be paid at a rate of $0.06, an annualized dividend of $0.24 yearly, or a dividend yield of 1.06%. Their current Payout Ratio is 34.78%.

Multiple institutional investors also recently altered their positions in the stock:

• Texas Permanent School Fund purchased 480 shares during the last quarter, resulting in a total of 18,558 shares valued at roughly $292,000. This represents a 2.7% increase.
• Suntrust Banks Inc. (NYSE:$STI) bought a new stake in the company with an opening investment of approximately $420,000.
• Wells Fargo & Company MN (NYSE:$WFC) bought an additional 32,408 shares during the last quarter. They now own a total of 64,062 shares worth approximately $1,182,000.
• Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE:$PRU) bought an additional 68,700 shares during the last quarter, for a total of 119,410 shares worth $2,204,000, an increase of 135.5%.
• Bank of America Corp DE (NYSE:$BAC) bought an additional 12,147 shares during the last quarter, giving them a total of 43,752 shares valued at roughly $808,000.

Institutional ownership accounts for roughly 83.86% of the stock’s ownership.

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