Looking in at Etsy Inc (ETSY), Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM), and FireEye Inc (FEYE) ahead of earnings
A busy week on Wall Street rages on. Three notable names preparing to report earnings are online marketplace Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY), organic grocer Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM), and cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE). Below, we'll take a pre-earnings look at ETSY, WFM, and FEYE, to see how the Street is preparing for the events.
- Tonight will mark only the third trip to the earnings confessional for ETSY, and shareholders are really hoping for a different showing this time around. In the sessions following the stock's previous two earnings reports, the shares have tumbled 18.1% and 28.3%. Judging by the security's near-term at-the-money (ATM) straddle data, traders are anticipating another major move of 20.1% in either direction. Call buying has been prevalent leading up to the event, with Etsy Inc sporting a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.12 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). At last check, ETSY was 1.2% higher at $10.82, which is a change of pace for the shares. The stock has underperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by more than 30 percentage points in the past two months.
- WFM is also hoping its trip to the earnings confessional tomorrow night goes differently than its last two, which pushed the shares 9.7% and 11.6% lower in the subsequent sessions. The options market is pricing in a 9.7% swing this time around, and it appears speculators are betting on this move to go to the downside. Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 1.35 sits higher than 94% of all readings from the past year. In other words, put buying has outweighed call buying at an unusually fast pace. The shares certainly could use a lift. The stock was 38.7% lower in 2015 coming into today, and was last seen at $31.08. Amid this free fall, analysts have been trimming their expectations, and Deutsche Bank and SunTrust Robinson just cut their price targets on the stock by $5 to $30 and $40, respectively.
- Finally, FEYE is surging ahead of its quarterly event tomorrow night, picking up 5.1% at $28.94. The stock's near-term ATM straddle is pricing in an 11.7% post-earnings swing, outstripping the shares' average post-event move of 9.6% over the past eight quarters. If FireEye Inc jumps after earnings, it could benefit from a round of analyst upgrades. Currently, half of the brokerage firms covering FEYE say it's only a "hold."