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Fitbit Inc (FIT) Stock Edges Higher on Coin Deal

Fitbit Inc (FIT) is acquiring wearable payment assets from Coin

May 18, 2016 at 2:07 PM
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Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) has purchased wearable payment assets from financial tech firm Coin. The move could result in FIT's next generation of fitness bands doubling as mobile wallets. Yet, the stock has barely moved higher today, up just 0.4% at $14.22 -- potentially disappointing recent buyers of call options.

To be sure, plenty of options traders have purchased FIT calls during the past two weeks. Specifically, 23,000 calls have been bought to open at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), versus just over 7,100 puts.

While FIT's resultant call/put volume ratio of 3.23 seems high at first glance, it's relatively muted, compared to other recent readings. Just two weeks ago, the ratio was docked at 4.22, with long calls more than quadrupling puts. Loftier still, this call/put volume ratio hit an all-time high of 25.01 on March 14.

That's not to say that all FIT call buyers are bullish. In fact, short interest rose 14.7% during the last two reporting periods to over 39 million shares -- or 18.7% of the stock's float. It would take one week for short sellers to cover these positions, at FIT's usual trading volume, suggesting some of the call buying may have been at the hands of short sellers seeking upside protection.

Adding credibility to this theory, Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) has had a woeful 2016, from a technical standpoint. This year alone, the shares have given up over half of their value. And on a relative-strength basis, the stock has underperformed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 17.7 percentage points over the last month.

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