Pixelworks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PXLW) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Pixelworks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PXLW) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 481,000 shares, a growth of 126.4% from the February 28th total of 212,500 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 345,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Pixelworks Trading Down 7.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PXLW traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $0.64. 178,801 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 371,628. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.96 million, a P/E ratio of -1.31 and a beta of 1.81. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $0.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $0.76. Pixelworks has a 1 year low of $0.60 and a 1 year high of $2.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 4.02 and a quick ratio of 3.57.

Pixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.02. Pixelworks had a negative return on equity of 111.21% and a negative net margin of 66.47%. Equities analysts expect that Pixelworks will post -0.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1.50 price objective on shares of Pixelworks in a research report on Thursday, February 13th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Haley F. Aman sold 48,854 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $0.85, for a total transaction of $41,525.90. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 352,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $299,715.95. This represents a 12.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pixelworks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PXLW. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Pixelworks during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Pixelworks by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 734,348 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $536,000 after acquiring an additional 225,948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Pixelworks by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,262,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,109,000 after acquiring an additional 965,889 shares during the period. 21.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Pixelworks

Pixelworks, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets semiconductor and software solutions for mobile, home and enterprise, and cinema markets in the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Europe. The company offers imageprocessor integrated circuits, such as embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology, and software that control the operations and signal processing within high-end display systems; visual processor integrated circuits that works with a mobile application processor; and transcoder integrated circuits which includes software that control the operations and signal processing for converting multiple bitrates, resolutions and codecs to provide bandwidth efficient video transmissions based on industry standard protocols.