Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 633,213 call options on the company. This is an increase of 79% compared to the average volume of 354,260 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on INTC shares. New Street Research downgraded Intel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Intel from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Hsbc Global Res cut Intel from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group cut their target price on Intel from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of Intel from $35.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Intel presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.04.

Intel Stock Up 6.4 %

Shares of INTC opened at $20.91 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Intel has a fifty-two week low of $18.51 and a fifty-two week high of $51.28. The company’s fifty day moving average is $24.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.45. The firm has a market cap of $89.41 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78 and a beta of 1.03.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The chip maker reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.08). Intel had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 1.78%. The firm had revenue of $12.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.05) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Intel will post -0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Intel Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. Intel’s payout ratio is currently 52.08%.

Insider Transactions at Intel

In other Intel news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger bought 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $20.16 per share, with a total value of $252,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 37,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $765,576. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Intel

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Intel by 71.0% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,642 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $144,000 after buying an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. Brightwater Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Intel in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Intel during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,115,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Intel during the 2nd quarter worth $9,265,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of Intel in the second quarter worth $65,000. 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.