U.S. stocks are moving higher today, thanks to stimulus news out of China. In other company news, today's stocks to watch includes toy titan Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), military defense concern Raytheon Company (NYSE:RYN), and industrial real estate firm Prologis Inc (NYSE:PLD).
- HAS posted first-quarter revenue and profit figures that beat analyst expectations, sending the shares 6.4% higher to $70.13. Technically speaking, Hasbro, Inc. has been an outperformer, with the shares up 27.6% year-to-date. Accordingly, calls have been popular in the options pits, as HAS' 50-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) call/put volume ratio of 2.80 ranks higher than 95% of all similar readings from the past year. Meanwhile, 12.6% of the stock's available float is sold short, which would take nearly 13 sessions to cover, at average trading volumes.
- RTN announced that it is acquiring cybersecurity specialist Websense from Vista Equity Partners, LLC in a deal worth $1.9 billion, sending the shares 0.6% lower to $107.10. On the charts, the shares of Raytheon Company are down about 5% from their March 20 all-time high of $113.36 to test support atop their 20-week trendline. However, short-term traders have been more call-skewed than usual ahead of RTN's trip to the earnings confessional on Thursday. Specifically, RTN's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.64 is lower than 92% of all similar readings from the past year.
- The shares of PLD are 0.1% lower to $42.83, after the firm announced it has teamed up with Norway's $890 billion sovereign wealth fund to purchase KTR Capital Partners for $5.9 billion. What's more, the real estate company posted first-quarter earnings that toppled expectations. On the charts, Prologis Inc has edged lower recently, with the shares down 9.8% from their Jan. 27 six-year high of $47.56. Despite this downward price action, traders have shown a distinct preference for calls over puts in recent weeks, as PLD's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 86.00 stands in the 92nd percentile of its annual range.