An SEC filing revealed BRK.A's holdings at the end of the second quarter
Shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) are soaring in early trading, after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) increased its exposure to the pharmaceutical giant. Alongside the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL), the firm upped its stake in TEVA by 6.7%, to 43.2 million shares. In response, the drug name is up 0.8% at $22.29, at last check.
More broadly, Teva Pharmaceuticals stock suffered a post-earnings bear gap on Aug. 2, and sliced below the supportive 40-day moving average. Nevertheless, the stock found a foothold at its 80-day moving average and the $21.50 level. TEVA has managed to pick up 17.6% year-to-date, and most recently peaked at a fresh annual high of $25.14 on June 29.
Switching gears, options traders have been leaning bullish toward the pharma concern, per data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). TEVA's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.08 ranks in the 79th annual percentile. In other words, more than twice the amount of calls have been purchased over puts during the past two weeks of trading -- a quicker-than-usual clip.
Plus, now may be a good time for near-term traders to jump onto Teva stock with options. This is per the stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 33%, which ranks in the bottom 3rd percentile of its annual range. This suggests that muted volatility expectations have been priced into short-term TEVA options.
What's more, TEVA has been an attractive target for premium buyers during the past 12 months, per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 100 -- the highest possible ranking. This shows that the stock has tended to realize greater volatility on the charts than what the options market has priced in over the last 52 weeks.