Macy's, Inc. (M), Digital Ally, Inc. (DGLY), and NetEase Inc (NTES) will step up to the earnings mic tomorrow
Tomorrow's earnings calendar is relatively light, given the Veterans Day holiday. However, three companies scheduled to step into the confessional are retailer Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M), surveillance firm Digital Ally, Inc. (NASDAQ:DGLY), and tech titan NetEase Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:NTES). Below, we'll take the pre-earnings temperature of M, DGLY, and NTES.
- M will step up to the plate bright and early tomorrow, and option traders are expecting big things. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.55 ranks below 95% of all comparable readings from the past year, indicating short-term speculators have rarely been as call-focused as they are now. This confidence is confounding, given Macy's, Inc.'s technical struggles. Though the shares are currently up 1.5% at $46.92, they're down nearly 29% year-to-date -- and not far from their roughly two-year low of $45.83, touched yesterday. Based on M's near-term at-the-money (ATM) straddle, the options market is pricing in a 9.7% post-event move for the stock. This is more than double the equity's average single-day swing of 4.6%, in the aftermath of the company's past eight reports. If the earnings reaction tomorrow is negative, an unwinding of bullish sentiment among options traders could amplify headwinds.
- DGLY will tell all after the close tomorrow, and expectations are mixed in the lead-up to the quarterly event. On the one hand, all three analysts tracking the shares have doled out "strong buy" opinions. On the other, one-fifth of Digital Ally, Inc.'s float is sold short, and would take over two weeks to buy back, at typical daily levels. Technically speaking, the stock could use an earnings boost, as it's down 4.5% today -- and more than 62% on the year -- at $5.77.
- Finally, the options market is pricing in a 5.6% post-earnings move for NTES, which steps into the spotlight tomorrow night. Historically, the shares have swung an average of 4% in the aftermath of the company's last eight turns in the earnings booth. Expectations are sky-high ahead of the report, based on data from the International Securities exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). NetEase Inc's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 3.46 ranks a mere 7 percentage points from an annual peak, indicating traders have bought to open calls over puts at a near-extreme rate in recent months. This glass-half-full approach makes a lot of sense, considering NTES has advanced over 43% since its most recent low of $102.80 in late August, now trading at $147.27.