Traders Buy High Volume of Intel Call Options (NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 1,174,752 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 230% compared to the average volume of 356,497 call options.

Institutional Trading of Intel

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in INTC. Finley Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Keystone Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Intel by 7,370.6% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,270 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253 shares during the period. 64.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Intel Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ INTC opened at $23.60 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.68. Intel has a 52 week low of $18.51 and a 52 week high of $46.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.19 billion, a PE ratio of -5.39 and a beta of 1.08.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The chip maker reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.14). Intel had a negative net margin of 35.32% and a negative return on equity of 3.27%. Analysts predict that Intel will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on INTC. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Intel from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Intel from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays dropped their price objective on Intel from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Intel in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Intel from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.60.

About Intel

Intel Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells computing and related products and services worldwide. It operates through Client Computing Group, Data Center and AI, Network and Edge, Mobileye, and Intel Foundry Services segments. The company's products portfolio comprises central processing units and chipsets, system-on-chips (SoCs), and multichip packages; mobile and desktop processors; hardware products comprising graphics processing units (GPUs), domain-specific accelerators, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and memory and storage, connectivity and networking, and other semiconductor products.