Intel Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC – Get Rating) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 241,141 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 37% compared to the average daily volume of 176,055 call options.

Intel Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:INTC opened at $30.18 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $124.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.40, a PEG ratio of 8.61 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.16. Intel has a 1 year low of $24.59 and a 1 year high of $52.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.16.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The chip maker reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $14.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.49 billion. Intel had a net margin of 12.71% and a return on equity of 7.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 31.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.09 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Intel will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Intel Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, May 7th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. Intel’s dividend payout ratio is 74.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger bought 9,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.68 per share, for a total transaction of $249,096.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 18,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $480,216. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 9,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.68 per share, for a total transaction of $249,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 18,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $480,216. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David Zinsner acquired 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 30th. The stock was bought at an average price of $27.89 per share, with a total value of $50,202.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $486,680.50. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 20,500 shares of company stock worth $549,768 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Frontier Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Intel by 0.5% in the first quarter. Frontier Wealth Management LLC now owns 46,894 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,181,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. West Michigan Advisors LLC increased its position in Intel by 5.4% in the first quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 5,137 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Intel by 1.2% in the second quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 25,830 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $966,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Income Solutions Inc increased its position in Intel by 5.1% in the first quarter. Retirement Income Solutions Inc now owns 6,338 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL increased its position in Intel by 0.4% in the second quarter. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL now owns 82,863 shares of the chip maker’s stock worth $3,100,000 after buying an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Securities reduced their target price on Intel from $52.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Intel from $32.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Intel from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $32.00 target price on shares of Intel in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Intel from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $29.50 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.38.

About Intel

(Get Rating)

Intel Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of computer products and technologies. It delivers computer, networking, data storage, and communications platforms. The firm operates through the following segments: Client Computing Group (CCG), Data Center and AI (DCAI), Network and Edge (NEX), Mobileye, Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG), Intel Foundry Services (IFS), and All Other.