Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR)

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 46,109 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,317% compared to the average volume of 3,253 put options.

Amkor Technology Stock Down 0.1 %

AMKR opened at $18.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a PE ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 1.88. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.76. Amkor Technology has a 1-year low of $18.20 and a 1-year high of $44.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.06. Amkor Technology had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 5.60%. As a group, research analysts expect that Amkor Technology will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Amkor Technology Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.0827 per share. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Amkor Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Agnes C. Kim sold 869,565 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.85, for a total transaction of $18,999,995.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,020,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $218,956,009.50. This trade represents a 7.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Kevin Engel sold 5,489 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.69, for a total transaction of $119,056.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,105.72. The trade was a 79.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 31.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amkor Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMKR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Amkor Technology by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,664,226 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $402,414,000 after buying an additional 1,092,002 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Amkor Technology by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,778,790 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $122,767,000 after acquiring an additional 350,809 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Amkor Technology by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,081,481 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $104,853,000 after buying an additional 556,761 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Amkor Technology by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,355,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $102,688,000 after purchasing an additional 176,528 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Amkor Technology by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,709,002 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,594,000 after buying an additional 530,771 shares in the last quarter. 42.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Amkor Technology from $42.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Melius Research lowered Amkor Technology from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Amkor Technology from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley lowered their price target on shares of Amkor Technology from $38.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Melius cut shares of Amkor Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $34.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.50.

About Amkor Technology

Amkor Technology, Inc provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test, and drop shipment services; flip chip scale package products for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory digital baseband, and as applications processors in mobile devices; flip-chip ball grid array packages for various networking, storage, computing, automotive, and consumer applications; and memory products for system memory or platform data storage.