Andrea Kramer (akramer@sir-inc.com) Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (BRCD) is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth-quarter figures after the closing bell on Monday. Historically speaking, the data center supplier has matched or bested analysts' per-share profit predictions in each of the past four quarters ? which could explain today's affinity for out-of-the-money calls on the security.
In afternoon trading, the stock has seen about 18,000 calls change hands, already surpassing its expected single-session volume of around 14,000 calls. Nearly all of the action has centered on the January series of options, with more than 5,000 calls traded at both the 6 and 9 strikes. In addition, the January 7.50 strike has seen roughly 2,600 calls exchanged, while the even deeper-out-of-the-money January 10 call has seen about 1,600 contracts cross the tape.
However, today's preference for calls is nothing new for BRCD, as evidenced by the security's descending Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR). After sliding lower during the past few months, the equity's SOIR now rests at 0.15, implying that calls significantly outnumber puts among options slated to expire within three months. In fact, this ratio now sits at a 52-week low, suggesting that short-term speculators haven't been more optimistically aligned toward BRCD at any other time during the past year.
At last check, the shares of BRCD have muscled 1.7% higher to flirt with the $5.80 level.
No comments:
Post a Comment