Eleventh-Hour Bears Take Aim at Splunk Inc. (SPLK)

Splunk Inc's (SPLK) weekly 4/24 series of options is especially popular today

Apr 23, 2015 at 1:46 PM

SPLK

Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) puts have been relatively popular of late. During the past two weeks on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the software concern has racked up a put/call volume ratio of 0.68 -- in the 68th percentile of its annual range.

Puts are again popular today, running at triple the expected afternoon rate, and outnumbering calls by a more than 3-to-1 margin. Eleventh-hour skeptics are active, buying to open the weekly 4/24 65-, 65.50-, 67-, and 68-strike puts, in the hopes SPLK will finish below the respective levels by tomorrow's close -- when the weekly series expires.

This bearish attention is fairly surprising, given SPLK's nearly 4% advance today to trade at $68.50. Year-to-date, the shares are now up 16.2%

One group that's decisively bullish toward Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) is analysts. Twenty of 24 brokerage firms following the shares rate them a "buy" or better, compared to four "holds" and not a single "sell."

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