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

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 657,795 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 38% compared to the average volume of 476,811 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

INTC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Intel in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wedbush decreased their target price on Intel from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Intel from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Cfra Research raised Intel to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Intel from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Intel currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.57.

Intel Price Performance

Shares of INTC opened at $22.08 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $96.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.04 and a beta of 1.12. Intel has a 1 year low of $17.67 and a 1 year high of $37.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The business has a 50-day moving average of $20.35 and a 200-day moving average of $21.22.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The chip maker reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $12.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.26 billion. Intel had a negative net margin of 35.32% and a negative return on equity of 3.27%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Intel will post -0.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Intel

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Intel during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $782,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Intel during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Vest Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Intel by 34.0% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 23,439 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 5,949 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Intel by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 518,962 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $10,405,000 after buying an additional 64,174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its position in Intel by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 154,098 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $3,090,000 after purchasing an additional 13,192 shares during the period. 64.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.