SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) Short Interest Update

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,416,537 shares, a drop of 15.5% from the March 31st total of 4,043,366 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,763,211 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

SK Telecom Price Performance

NYSE:SKM traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.01. 1,196,755 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,018,791. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. SK Telecom has a 1 year low of $19.66 and a 1 year high of $40.49. The company has a market cap of $14.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.82.

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The Wireless communications provider reported $10.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $10.57. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.02 billion. SK Telecom had a net margin of 2.28% and a return on equity of 3.21%. Sell-side analysts forecast that SK Telecom will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on SKM shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Daiwa Securities Group downgraded shares of SK Telecom to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Bank of America downgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of SK Telecom from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SK Telecom presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce”.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SK Telecom

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in SK Telecom by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,462,769 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $50,561,000 after purchasing an additional 374,428 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in SK Telecom by 2.7% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,253,677 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $48,679,000 after purchasing an additional 60,242 shares during the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC increased its position in SK Telecom by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 1,117,361 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,939,000 after purchasing an additional 12,672 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in SK Telecom by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 923,579 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $18,961,000 after purchasing an additional 12,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in SK Telecom by 9.6% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 886,930 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $19,158,000 after purchasing an additional 77,763 shares during the last quarter.

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.