BlackRock Boost Cypress Semiconductor Stake To 7.7 Percent

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BlackRock, one of the world’s largest money managers boosted its stake in Cypress Semiconductor Corporation based on its13G filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The filing showed that BlackRock beneficially owned 12,389,276 shares or 7.7% of Cypress Semiconductor, up from 4,540 shares disclosed on its 13F filing during the September quarter.

BlackRock is now the second largest shareholder of Cypress Semiconductor, a provider of high-performance, mixed signal and programmable solutions. The company operates four business segments including consumer & computation division, data communications division, memory products division and emerging technologies.

Last week, Cypress Semiconductor reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company generated $0.13 in earnings per share on $184.1 million in revenue. Its gross margin was 52.4% and its free cash flow increased by $19 million sequentially. The company said its 2014 non-GAA operating expense declined at a 15-year low.

Last month, Cypress Semiconductor announced its $ 4 billion all-stock, tax-free merger with Spansion, which is expected to achieve $135 million in annual cost synergies over three years.

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According to the company, its proposed merger with Spansion already received clearance from regulators in Germany and the United States.  Cypress Semiconductor is confident that the combined company will become the leading provider of micro-controntrollers, flash and SRAm memories as well as automotive components needed for today’s embedded systems.

The shares of Cypress Semiconductor are trading around $15.01 per share, down by more than 1% at the time of this writing around 3:33 in the afternoon in New York. The company’s executive vice president Hassany El-Khoury sold 27,054 shares at an average price of $14.35 per share on January 22.

Over the past year, Cypress Semiconductor gained 48% in stock value. Its shares traded from $8.04 to as much as $15.48 per share.

Needham & Company recently increased its price target for the shares of Cypress Semiconductor from $16 to $20 per share. It has a Buy rating for the stock.

The research firm stated that it becoming increasingly bullish in the timing and integration the company’s pending merger with Spansion as it expects a significant upside on the target annual synergies.

Based on the stock performance of Cypress Corporation, BlackRock is definitely a big winner.

ValueWalk previously reported that George Soros gained $16 million when the company announced its merger deal last month. Soros has stakes in Cypress Semiconductor and Spansion, went up 17% and 24%, respectively at the time of the announcement on December 2.

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