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

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 1,174,752 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 230% compared to the typical daily volume of 356,497 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

INTC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on Intel from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on Intel from $25.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Intel from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Intel from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-seven have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.60.

Intel Stock Down 2.2 %

Intel stock opened at $23.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $102.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.39 and a beta of 1.08. Intel has a 1-year low of $18.51 and a 1-year high of $46.63. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The chip maker reported ($0.02) 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Intel will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Intel

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of INTC. Finley Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Intel during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Intel in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new stake in Intel in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Keystone Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Intel in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Intel by 7,370.6% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.53% of the company’s stock.

Intel Company Profile

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.