Twitter is set to report its quarterly earnings this Wednesday
Shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are higher in today's trading, after MKM Partners upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral," and initiated a $40 price target -- a roughly 27% premium to last night's close, and territory not charted since April 2015. Analyst Rob Sanderson said it thinks the company is removed from Facebook's (FB) data scandal, and that it "increasingly appears that Twitter is here to stay."
The social media giant also saw positive attention from Citigroup, which raised TWTR's ranking to eight from 15 among its list of U.S. internet stocks. In response, the equity is trading up 4.7% at $33.01 at last check, extending its recent bounce higher above the supportive 80-day moving average. Twitter stock is up 155% year-over-year, and touched a two-year high of $36.80 on March 14.
The stock also sports a Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.69, which ranks in the 83rd percentile of its annual range. Though the ratio indicates that short-term calls still outnumber puts on an absolute basis, the elevated percentile indicates that near-term traders have rarely shown a greater preference for puts over calls in the last year.
Looking further, the stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 96 (out of 100) indicates Twitter shares have easily exceeded
options traders' volatility expectations in the past year. This could come in handy for premium buyers, with the company's first-quarter earnings report set for release ahead of the open this coming Wednesday.