Short Interest Drops Sharply

As per MarketBeat’slatest figures, there has been a massive decrease in short interest in SK Telecom in the month of July. Short interest as of July 31 is 2,229,077 shares, which is a drop of 42.6% as compared to 3,886,580 shares recorded as of July 15.

Short interest is at 0.6% of the company’s total outstanding shares. It will take investors around 0.7 days to short cover at the stock’s average daily trading volume of 3,066,527 shares.

This decrease in short interest is due to the fact that SK Telecom stock has performed well and has reported better than expected quarterly results.

Shares Rise as Earnings Beat Forecasts

Shares of SK Telecom went up by $0.56 (or 1.5%) on Monday to $39.07. Volume was 1,100,934 shares versus an average volume of 2,181,111 shares.

Market capitalization of the company was $14.99 billion; the price-to-earnings ratio equaled 31.22. Beta was 0.64; the current ratio was 1.18, and the quick ratio was 1.15. Debt-to-equity ratio was 0.57.

The 52-week range of the stock was $19.66-$47.18. The 50-day moving average was $33.99; the 200-day moving average was $33.67.

SK Telecom presented its earnings for the last quarter on August 5. Earnings per share were $0.81, outperforming analysts’ forecasts of $0.59 by $0.22. Revenue amounted to $3.06 billion, beating estimates of $2.96 billion.

Return on equity of the company was 5.59%; net margin was 4.23%. Analysts forecast EPS for the year to be around $2.42.

Institutional Investors Add to Positions

Recently, some institutional investors have made changes to their investments in SK Telecom. For example, Kestra Advisory Services bought a new investment position worth around $28,000. UBS Asset Management Americas made a new investment position worth around $30,000 while Wexford Capital made an investment worth approximately $39,000.

Moreover, Matthews International Capital Management increased its investment position by 50.4%. It holds 2,491 shares worth around $51,000 by acquiring 835 more shares.

In the first quarter, Cubist Systematic Strategies made a new investment worth around $85,000.

Analyst Views Improve

The analysts’ sentiment towards SK Telecom has improved. In July, Wall Street Zen upgraded the stock to “Buy” from “Hold”, while in August, Zacks Research upgraded SK Telecom from “Hold” to “Strong Buy”. HSBC, on the other hand, upgraded the rating to “Hold” from “Reduce”.

JPMorgan Chase upgraded SK Telecom from “Neutral” to “Overweight.” Weiss Ratings improved their rating from “Hold” (C) to “Hold” (C+).

Even with all those upgrades, the overall rating at MarketBeat is still “Hold”. The analyst sentiment consists of one “Strong Buy,” one “Buy,” three “Holds” and two “Sells.”

SK Telecom is the largest wireless company in South Korea, providing services such as 5G, 4G LTE and Internet of Things connectivity along with broadband, digital content, cloud computing, and cyber security services. It was incorporated in 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services.