Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) Stock Sees Unusually High Call Option Buying

Ichor Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ:ICHR) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 2,629 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 207% compared to the typical daily volume of 855 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ICHR shares. Zacks Research upgraded Ichor from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 6th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Ichor in a research note on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ichor from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Ichor from $115.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ichor from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ichor currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.44.

Ichor Stock Performance

Shares of ICHR opened at $37.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 3.56. Ichor has a twelve month low of $14.07 and a twelve month high of $113.58. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.63. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.99 and a beta of 1.88.

Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 2nd. The technology company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.18. Ichor had a net margin of 0.32% and a return on equity of 3.54%. The company had revenue of $328.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $330.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 37.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ichor will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Bruce Ragsdale sold 10,587 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.93, for a total value of $549,782.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 92,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,794,385.32. This represents a 10.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Iain MacKenzie sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.66, for a total value of $1,013,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 102,427 shares in the company, valued at $5,188,951.82. The trade was a 16.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 46,740 shares of company stock valued at $2,602,960 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ichor

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Ichor during the second quarter worth about $5,165,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Ichor by 54.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,108,844 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $124,501,000 after acquiring an additional 390,017 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. bought a new stake in Ichor in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,991,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in Ichor in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,101,000. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ichor during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,870,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.81% of the company’s stock.

Ichor Company Profile

Ichor Holdings, Ltd. designs, engineers and manufactures fluid delivery systems and components used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Its products include gas and chemical delivery subsystems, gas panels, precision-machined parts and welded assemblies that help equipment makers control and deliver process materials used to manufacture semiconductor wafers. The company primarily serves original equipment manufacturers in the semiconductor capital equipment industry, supporting customers with manufacturing and engineering operations across multiple regions.