Traders Purchase Large Volume of STMicroelectronics Call Options (NYSE:STM)

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 12,060 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 103% compared to the average volume of 5,929 call options.

STMicroelectronics Price Performance

NYSE STM opened at $35.45 on Tuesday. STMicroelectronics has a 52 week low of $17.25 and a 52 week high of $36.45. The company has a current ratio of 3.36, a quick ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $31.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 196.93 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $32.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.54.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 30th. The semiconductor producer reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.16). STMicroelectronics had a return on equity of 2.70% and a net margin of 1.41%.The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.29 billion. Analysts forecast that STMicroelectronics will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STM. Amundi bought a new position in shares of STMicroelectronics in the first quarter valued at approximately $947,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of STMicroelectronics by 182.8% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 32,094 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $705,000 after acquiring an additional 20,745 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of STMicroelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $119,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of STMicroelectronics by 17.8% in the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 160,629 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $4,885,000 after acquiring an additional 24,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of STMicroelectronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $370,000. 5.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on STM. Mizuho set a $28.00 price objective on shares of STMicroelectronics in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of STMicroelectronics from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of STMicroelectronics from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of STMicroelectronics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, STMicroelectronics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.93.

STMicroelectronics Company Profile

STMicroelectronics is a global semiconductor company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, formed through the 1987 merger of SGS Microelettronica and Thomson Semiconducteurs. The company designs, develops and manufactures a broad range of semiconductor products and solutions that serve multiple end markets worldwide. ST’s offerings span from basic components to integrated systems, emphasizing energy-efficient and high-performance devices for modern electronics.

Product categories include microcontrollers (notably the widely used STM32 family), analog and mixed-signal ICs, power MOSFETs and power-management devices, MEMS and sensors, image sensors, and discrete semiconductors.