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

Intel Co. (NASDAQ:INTC) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 633,213 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 79% compared to the average daily volume of 354,260 call options.

Insider Transactions at Intel

In other Intel news, CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger acquired 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $20.16 per share, with a total value of $252,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 37,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $765,576. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of INTC. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in Intel by 71.0% in the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,642 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $144,000 after purchasing an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. Brightwater Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Intel during the 2nd quarter valued at $208,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Intel during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,115,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Intel in the 2nd quarter worth $9,265,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Intel in the second quarter valued at about $65,000. 64.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Intel Price Performance

Shares of Intel stock traded up $1.25 during trading on Monday, hitting $20.91. 124,782,359 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 54,945,445. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $24.98 and its 200-day moving average is $31.60. The stock has a market cap of $89.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.40 and a beta of 1.03. Intel has a 52 week low of $18.51 and a 52 week high of $51.28. 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 (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The chip maker reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.08). Intel had a return on equity of 1.78% and a net margin of 1.77%. The business had revenue of $12.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.05) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Intel will post -0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Intel Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on INTC. New Street Research cut shares of Intel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Intel from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Intel from $29.00 to $22.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Intel from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Intel from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.04.

About Intel

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.