CARA is on track for its best day in over a year
The shares of Cara Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CARA) are up 13.1% to trade at $23.82 at last check -- their highest level in over a year -- on reports that the equity will be added to the S&P 600 SmallCap Index (SP600). The biopharmaceutical company's stock will replace MTS Systems (MTSC), effective before the open on Thursday, April 8.
Prior to the announcement, Cara Therapeutics stock was staging an impressive rise on the charts with solid support emerging at the 50-day moving average. Should today's positive price action hold, it will mark CARA's best single-day percentage gain in over a year. Plus, the security is up 57.4% this year alone.
A short squeeze could give CARA even more room to run. Short interest is up 14.6% in the last two reporting periods, and the 3.21 million shares sold short represents a healthy 8.3% of the security's total available float. It would take over six days to buy back these bearish bets, at the stock's average trading volume.
Options traders have been much more bullish, however. The stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 13.17 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) sits in the slightly elevated 74th percentile of its annual range, implying long calls have been picked up at a much faster-than-usual clip during the past ten weeks.