Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $121.60, but opened at $125.87. Rambus shares last traded at $122.4460, with a volume of 247,628 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on RMBS. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Rambus from $73.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Rambus to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings raised Rambus from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Cfra Research lowered shares of Rambus from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Rambus to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Rambus presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $108.14.

Rambus Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $100.12 and a 200-day moving average of $91.66. The stock has a market cap of $13.18 billion, a PE ratio of 58.03 and a beta of 1.51.

Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.18). Rambus had a return on equity of 17.73% and a net margin of 33.72%.The business had revenue of $178.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $175.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Rambus, Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Rambus

In related news, Director Eric B. Stang sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.35, for a total transaction of $511,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 24,394 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,496,725.90. This represents a 17.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Rambus

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Rambus by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,701,773 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,323,525,000 after purchasing an additional 140,948 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in Rambus by 138.4% during the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,787,327 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $178,445,000 after buying an additional 1,618,133 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Rambus by 1.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,691 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $172,086,000 after buying an additional 35,744 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Rambus by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,432,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $253,418,000 after buying an additional 109,908 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Rambus by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,019,504 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $129,289,000 after acquiring an additional 235,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.54% of the company’s stock.

About Rambus

Rambus Inc is a technology licensing company specializing in semiconductor and system-level interface solutions. Founded in 1990 by Stanford University researchers Mike Farmwald and Mark Horowitz, Rambus established its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company initially gained prominence by developing high-speed DRAM interface technology and securing a broad patent portfolio covering memory architecture, data signaling and power management innovations.

Today, Rambus licenses its proprietary intellectual property (IP) to semiconductor companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators worldwide.