Pandora Media Inc (P) is singing a bearish tune, after the Internet radio company announced a $300 million debt offering
Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) is down 5.2% at $13.53, after the company last night announced a
private $300 million debt offering. It plans to put the proceeds toward the launch of an on-demand service in 2016, and to aid in license acquisition as well as international expansion.
The move is being met with a mixed reaction on Wall Street. On the one hand, Raymond James upgraded its assessment to "outperform" from "market perform." On the other, BMO initiated coverage with a tepid "market perform" opinion. This ambivalence is reflected more broadly, too. Of the 25 analysts tracking P, 13 have dished out "buy" or better ratings, versus 12 "hold" or worse designations.
By contrast, short-term option traders appear to be on the bullish end of the spectrum. P's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.47 indicates
calls more than double puts among options in the front three-months' series. More significantly, this SOIR rests below all but 1% of comparable readings recorded in the past year.
Digging deeper, calls in the January 2016 series have been extremely popular in recent weeks. Specifically, data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) indicates significant buy-to-open activity at the 15 and 17 strikes -- though
some of this was likely tied to stock.
On the charts, though, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) has done little to warrant such optimism. The shares have lost 24% on the year, including a
severe bearish gap in late October, following earnings.