Oracle Corporation (ORCL) is trading higher after the cloud firm agreed to buy Opower Inc (OPWR)
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) entered into a
$532 million agreement to buy cloud specialist Opower Inc (NYSE:OPWR), sending the latter's stock more than 30% higher -- a record intraday percentage gain. While OPWR booms, ORCL is modestly higher, up 0.7% at $40.15. On Wall Street, though, expectations for future gains are high -- in the options pits and beyond.
ORCL options traders have bought to open nearly three times as many calls as puts during the past month at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). The resultant
call/put volume ratio is 2.93 -- markedly more call-skewed than the ratio recorded two weeks ago, which checked in at 2.00 even.
What's more, investment guru and CNBC pundit Jim Cramer waxed optimistic on ORCL earlier. "Oracle really recognizes that the cloud is moving so fast, and they're bulking up in the cloud, which they have to do because their on-premise business is declining," said Cramer, in response to the company's acquisition of cloud concern OPWR.
Of course, not everyone's sold on ORCL. Nearly half of the analysts tracking the stock rate it a "hold" or worse. Plus, 42 million shares are sold short, which would take four sessions to cover, at the equity's typical daily trading levels.
Technically speaking, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has been consolidating atop the $40 level since
gapping higher in mid-March on earnings. In fact, this area is home to another potential layer of support in the form of the 320-day moving average. If ORCL bounces higher, short-covering activity and/or a
round of upgrades could further fuel its fire.
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