SK Telecom Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:SKM)

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors acquired 14,009 call options on the company. This is an increase of 171% compared to the average volume of 5,160 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SK Telecom

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Groupama Asset Managment raised its holdings in SK Telecom by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 25,371 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its position in SK Telecom by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 27,553 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in SK Telecom by 10.8% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,732 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc grew its holdings in SK Telecom by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 14,397 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares during the period. Finally, Matthews International Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of SK Telecom by 50.4% in the fourth quarter. Matthews International Capital Management LLC now owns 2,491 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 835 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SKM shares. Zacks Research raised SK Telecom from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of SK Telecom from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 4th. HSBC upgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of SK Telecom from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

SK Telecom Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SKM traded up $1.78 during trading on Thursday, reaching $35.72. 1,263,228 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,130,031. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.18. The stock has a market cap of $13.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.32, a PEG ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 0.63. SK Telecom has a 12-month low of $19.66 and a 12-month high of $47.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.98 billion. SK Telecom had a return on equity of 2.78% and a net margin of 2.03%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SK Telecom will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom Co, Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) is South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, offering a comprehensive range of mobile telecommunications services. The company operates 5G, 4G LTE and IoT networks, providing voice, data and messaging solutions to consumers and businesses. Beyond traditional wireless services, SK Telecom delivers fixed-line broadband, digital content platforms, cloud computing and cybersecurity offerings designed to support enterprise digital transformation and the growing demand for high-speed connectivity.

Established in 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services, SK Telecom pioneered cellular service commercialization in South Korea and has continually expanded into new technology areas.