Investors Buy High Volume of United Microelectronics Call Options (NYSE:UMC)

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 43,872 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 330% compared to the average daily volume of 10,193 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On United Microelectronics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC bought a new position in United Microelectronics during the second quarter worth $27,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC bought a new position in United Microelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in United Microelectronics during the fourth quarter worth $52,000. Arax Advisory Partners boosted its stake in United Microelectronics by 583.7% during the fourth quarter. Arax Advisory Partners now owns 8,656 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 7,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in United Microelectronics by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,498 shares in the last quarter. 5.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on UMC shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of United Microelectronics in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of United Microelectronics in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of United Microelectronics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and a consensus price target of $8.60.

United Microelectronics Trading Up 8.3%

UMC traded up $1.81 during trading on Thursday, reaching $23.57. 7,995,802 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,809,704. United Microelectronics has a one year low of $6.56 and a one year high of $23.70. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.33 billion, a PE ratio of 36.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $16.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.69.

United Microelectronics (NYSE:UMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.08. United Microelectronics had a net margin of 20.71% and a return on equity of 13.67%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that United Microelectronics will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

United Microelectronics Company Profile

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) is a Taiwan-based semiconductor foundry that provides wafer fabrication and related manufacturing services to a global customer base. Founded in 1980, the company operates as a pure-play foundry, producing integrated circuits for a range of customers including fabless semiconductor companies and integrated device manufacturers. UMC is publicly listed (NYSE: UMC) and focuses on high-reliability manufacturing rather than branding consumer products.

UMC’s core services encompass wafer fabrication using a portfolio of process technologies, with particular emphasis on mature and specialty nodes that support analog, power-management, radio-frequency (RF), and mixed-signal applications.