Stocks quoted in this article:
Analysts are weighing in today on express delivery firm FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX - 87.54), Internet photo service Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY - 29.55), and semiconductor stock Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD - 3.64). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes.
- Down about 3% in pre-market activity, FDX was cut to "market perform" from "outperform" at Wells Fargo and scored a slew of downward price-target adjustments this morning after the company slashed its quarterly guidance yesterday. Although the equity boasts a 12-month gain of nearly 19%, short-term puts outweigh calls, as reflected by FDX's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.58. In fact, this ratio is docked in the 92nd annual percentile, signaling that near-term options players have been more put-heavy toward the stock just 8% of the time during the past year.
- SFLY was downgraded to "hold" from "buy" at Jefferies ahead of the open, which could exacerbate the stock's year-over-year decline of nearly 42%. Nevertheless, the equity sports a 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) call/put volume ratio of 12.13, confirming that traders have bought to open more than a dozen calls for every put during the past two weeks. This ratio ranks in the 88th percentile of its annual range, meaning speculators have been scooping up calls over puts at an accelerated clip.
- AMD -- which has swallowed a loss of about 42% during the past year -- was cut to "neutral" from "buy" at UBS today. The stock has also underperformed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by north of 40 percentage points during the past three months. Not surprisingly, skeptics have been converging on the equity lately, as short interest ramped up by more than 13% during the past two reporting periods. These bearish bets now account for a hefty 16% of the security's float. It would take almost six days to cover these shorted shares, at AMD's average pace of trading.
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