Investors Buy High Volume of SK Telecom Call Options (NYSE:SKM)

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 12,372 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 118% compared to the average daily volume of 5,671 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on SKM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. HSBC raised shares of SK Telecom from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of SK Telecom from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

SK Telecom Trading Up 4.9%

NYSE SKM traded up $1.79 on Friday, hitting $38.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,627,977 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,592,667. The firm has a market cap of $14.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.80 and a beta of 0.64. SK Telecom has a 52-week low of $19.66 and a 52-week high of $47.18. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.61. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. SK Telecom had a return on equity of 5.59% and a net margin of 4.23%. Research analysts predict that SK Telecom will post 2.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SKM. Calamos Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of SK Telecom during the first quarter valued at about $9,065,000. ABN Amro Investment Solutions lifted its holdings in SK Telecom by 136.8% in the first quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 568,343 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $16,647,000 after buying an additional 328,300 shares during the period. Calamos Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in SK Telecom in the first quarter worth about $3,511,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its position in SK Telecom by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 221,300 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $4,543,000 after acquiring an additional 34,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC boosted its position in SK Telecom by 80.6% during the 1st quarter. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC now owns 223,557 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $6,513,000 after acquiring an additional 99,741 shares in 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.