BTIG said users 'could not care less' about Facebook's privacy concerns
Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stock is up 1.8% to trade at $196.17, after BTIG upped its price target on the social media giant by more than 50%, to $275 from $175, while maintaining its current "buy" rating. The brokerage firm also upped its earnings and revenue expectations for 2018 to 2020. The analyst said the growth of Instagram Stories has been "stunning," while noting that Facebook users "could not care less" about recent privacy issues.
BTIG's lofty new price target sits in uncharted territory. Facebook stock raced to a record high of $203.55 on June 20, but last week pulled back, logging its worst week since March 23. However, the dip appears to have been contained by the shares' 30-day moving average.
In the options pits, call buying has been all the rage in the past 10 days. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHXL (PHLX), the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.12 ranks in the elevated 78th annual percentile, meaning long calls have been initiated relative to puts at an accelerated clip.
Digging deeper, the August 230 call saw the biggest increase in open interest over the past two weeks, adding nearly 20,000 contracts. Data shows mostly buy-to-open activity at this strike, indicating options traders are banking on Facebook stock to keep climbing and topple $230 in the next several weeks.