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AOL, KATE, and OWW are moving sharply in Thursday's trading
Around midday, three of the top market movers are Internet pioneer AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), luxury designer Kate Spade & Co (NYSE:KATE), and travel website Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW). Here's a quick roundup of how AOL, KATE, and OWW are performing on the charts so far.
- AOL has lost roughly 2.5% to trade at $42.76, as a drop in subscription revenue and news of a security breach overshadow stronger-than-expected third-quarter sales. As a result, the stock is currently sitting on a year-to-date deficit of more than 9%. Likely cheering today's developments are recent AOL, Inc. options traders, who have been upping the bearish ante. During the past two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the equity has registered a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 22.83 -- higher than any other reading from the previous year.
- KATE has rallied 19.9% to hover near $31.48, but remains about 4% lower on a year-to-date basis. Helping the shares today are a 30% rise in third-quarter sales, stronger margins, and an upwardly revised same-store sales growth forecast. Meanwhile, the handbag maker's per-share profit finished in line with estimates. Today's gap higher is likely being met with applause in Kate Spade & Co's options pits, where traders have bought to open nearly 150 calls for every put during the last two weeks. Specifically, the stock's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 148.36 ranks at an extreme annual high.
- Finally, OWW is off 6.5% around midday at $7.93, after posting a third-quarter earnings miss and tightening its growth outlook. Nevertheless, the shares remain 11.4% higher since the start of the calendar year. Ahead of this morning's quarterly report, short sellers had been flocking to Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. During the last two reporting periods, in fact, short interest spiked nearly 56%, and now makes up 7.8% of the equity's outstanding float. However, at OWW's average daily trading volume, it would take less than three sessions to cover all of these bearish bets.