Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS)

Key Points

• Options activity surged in GlobalFoundries, with traders buying 11,130 call options on Thursday, about 53% above the stock’s average daily call volume.
• Wall Street sentiment remains mixed but constructive: analysts have recently raised price targets as high as $100, while the stock’s consensus rating is still Hold with an average target of $73.29.
• GlobalFoundries reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $1.63 billion, and it also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share.

GlobalFoundries Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 11,130 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 53% compared to the average daily volume of 7,268 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GFS. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of GlobalFoundries in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of GlobalFoundries from $49.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of GlobalFoundries from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Arete Research set a $95.00 price target on shares of GlobalFoundries in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $100.00 price objective on shares of GlobalFoundries in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $73.29.

Insider Transactions at GlobalFoundries

In related news, insider Michael James Hogan sold 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.88, for a total transaction of $232,064.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $799,377.60. This trade represents a 22.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Samak L. Azar sold 500 shares of GlobalFoundries stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.82, for a total value of $37,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 15,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,159,261.08. This represents a 3.13% 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 sold 21,675 shares of company stock valued at $1,387,882 over the last three months.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GlobalFoundries

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WealthCollab LLC increased its holdings in shares of GlobalFoundries by 674.7% in the fourth quarter. WealthCollab LLC now owns 705 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in shares of GlobalFoundries by 216.7% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 795 shares of the company's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of GlobalFoundries by 91.9% during the 3rd quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the company's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of GlobalFoundries by 57.6% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 955 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 349 shares during the period. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in GlobalFoundries in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000.

GlobalFoundries Stock Performance

GlobalFoundries stock traded up $2.53 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $86.23. 1,107,996 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,412,092. GlobalFoundries has a 52 week low of $31.51 and a 52 week high of $92.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.59. The firm has a market cap of $47.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.77. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $73.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.58.

GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.05. GlobalFoundries had a return on equity of 6.85% and a net margin of 11.40%.The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. GlobalFoundries has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.250-0.350 EPS. On average, analysts expect that GlobalFoundries will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GlobalFoundries Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 24th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%.

About GlobalFoundries

GlobalFoundries, Inc NASDAQ: GFS is a leading contract semiconductor manufacturer that provides wafer fabrication and related services to semiconductor companies and systems manufacturers. The company operates as a pure-play foundry, producing integrated circuits across a range of process technologies for customers in markets such as automotive, communications, consumer electronics, industrial, and aerospace. Its service offering spans process development, manufacturing, test and packaging support, and design enablement including process design kits (PDKs) and intellectual property (IP) libraries to help customers bring designs to production.

GlobalFoundries focuses on a portfolio of differentiated and specialty process nodes, offering technologies for radio-frequency (RF) and wireless, analog and mixed-signal, power management, embedded non-volatile memory, and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process families.

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