SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Up 83.1% in September

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SKM) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,283,903 shares, a growth of 83.1% from the August 31st total of 1,793,955 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,577,633 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SK Telecom

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SKM. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in SK Telecom during the second quarter valued at $42,869,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of SK Telecom by 1.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of SK Telecom during the 2nd quarter worth about $24,120,000. ABN Amro Investment Solutions lifted its holdings in shares of SK Telecom by 136.8% during the 1st quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 568,343 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $16,647,000 after buying an additional 328,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SK Telecom by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 526,529 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $10,810,000 after buying an additional 14,350 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on SKM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded SK Telecom from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research cut shares of SK Telecom from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, August 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of SK Telecom from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce”.

SK Telecom Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:SKM traded down $0.13 on Thursday, hitting $34.78. 91,060 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,054,055. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. SK Telecom has a 1 year low of $19.66 and a 1 year high of $47.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.44. The company has a market cap of $13.35 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84 and a beta of 0.67.

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.96 billion. SK Telecom had a return on equity of 5.30% and a net margin of 4.23%. Equities analysts anticipate that SK Telecom will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom Co, Ltd. is a South Korean telecommunications company and a member of the SK Group. Headquartered in Seoul, the company provides mobile communications services, including voice, messaging, wireless data, 5G connectivity and related subscription services, primarily in South Korea.

Through its affiliates and business operations, SK Telecom also offers fixed-line broadband internet, internet protocol television and media services. Its enterprise portfolio includes cloud computing, data center services, information and communication technology solutions, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things services for businesses and public-sector customers.

The company traces its origins to Korea Mobile Telecommunications, established in 1984, and adopted the SK Telecom name in 1998 following its incorporation into the SK Group.