Wells Fargo is waxing optimistic on the retailer's upcoming earnings report
Shares of home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) are up 0.4% at $243.30 this morning, enjoying a fresh bull note out of Wells Fargo. The brokerage firm -- which waxed optimistic about the company's upcoming earnings report on Feb. 25 -- hiked its price target to $265 from $240, a 9.3% upside to last night's close of $242.36. Despite the analyst in coverage calling HD "one of the best operators in all of retail," heading into today, only 11 of 20 covering firms sport a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.
Overall Home Depot stock has been climbing higher on the charts since a mid-December pullback, bouncing off the 200-day moving average's floor of support. This trendline has been a cushion for for the shares in the past as well, capturing multiple pullbacks between April and early June last year. So far in 2020, the equity has tacked on 11%.
In the options pits, HD's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.82 ranks in the 90th annual percentile at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). In simpler terms, calls have been purchased over puts at a faster-than-usual clip during the past two weeks.
Echoing this is the stock's Schaeffer's open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.79, which ranks in the 12th percentile of its annual range. In other words, short-term options players have rarely been more call-heavy during the last 12 months.