Buzz Stocks: Twitter Inc, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., and Tesla Motors Inc

Today's stocks to watch include Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)

by Josh Selway

Published on Feb 1, 2016 at 9:58 AM

U.S. indexes are trading lower this morning, once again tracking oil futures. Among the equities in focus are microblogging concern Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), and electric car producer Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).

TWTR has added 5.4% in early trading to hit $17.71 -- despite a price-target cut to $25 from $38 at Canaccord Genuity -- after The Information reported the company could be nearing "some sort of deal" with investor Marc Andreessen and private equity firm Silver Lake (subscription required). This is a potentially promising development for a stock that's underperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by over 29 percentage points in the past two months. Option traders should be pleased. Specially, Twitter Inc's 50-day call/put volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) comes in at 3.12 -- just 6 percentage points from an annual high.

CMG is gaining this morning on reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will announce the end of its investigation into the company's E. coli outbreak. The shares are up 4.2% at $471.00, though they'd still need to rally over 61% to re-take their all-time high of $758.61 from August. In the meantime, BofA-Merrill Lynch raised its opinion on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. to "neutral." Elsewhere on the Street, 69% of covering brokerage firms rate CMG a "hold" or "sell." The company will report earnings after tomorrow's close.

Despite news that CEO Elon Musk has exercised roughly $100 million worth of stock options, TSLA is down 3.2% this morning at $185.02. Weighing on the shares is a substantial price-target cut at Morgan Stanley to $333 from $450. The brokerage firm cited lower volume expectations for the Model X and Model 3, on top of increased competition in the mobility market and a lower valuation of the company's energy business. Pessimism has been ramping up elsewhere on Wall Street, too. For example, Tesla Motors Inc's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX of 1.08 lands in the 88th percentile of its annual range.

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