Intel Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders acquired 617,741 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 36% compared to the average volume of 454,501 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on INTC. UBS Group cut their price objective on Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Intel from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Intel from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. HSBC upgraded Intel from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.04.

Institutional Trading of Intel

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Intel by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,099,204 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $7,400,439,000 after purchasing an additional 6,143,164 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Intel by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 197,958,739 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $4,644,112,000 after purchasing an additional 5,417,753 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Intel by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,488,444 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $1,909,761,000 after buying an additional 2,978,346 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Intel by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 63,263,339 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $1,268,430,000 after buying an additional 4,793,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter worth $1,246,569,000. 64.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Intel Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:INTC opened at $25.69 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $21.56 and a 200-day moving average of $21.90. Intel has a 12 month low of $18.51 and a 12 month high of $45.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.24 billion, a PE ratio of -5.87 and a beta of 1.02.

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

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.