No fewer than 19 analysts raised their price targets
Social media giant Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is down 3.4% at $360.05 at last check, despite yesterday reporting second-quarter earnings of $3.61 per share -- much higher than the $3.03 per share analysts anticipated. While the company posted a 56% rise in ad revenue, the 7% jump in monthly active users year-over-year came in below estimates, marking the slowest growth rate in nearly three years. Also overshadowing the upbeat results was a warning that revenue for the third and fourth quarters would "decelerate significantly."
Despite the grim outlook, analysts are blasting Facebook stock with bull notes. So far, the equity has earned at least 19 price-target hikes, including one from Monness, Crespi, Hardt to $500 from $460. This is made even more interesting by the fact that the grand majority of analysts are already bullish towards FB, with 23 of the 26 in question saying "buy" or better.
The security notched a fresh pre-earnings all-time high of $377.54 yesterday, too. Plus, the ascending 50-day moving average has been guiding shares higher since March, and contained the security's latest pullback to the $334 area. In the past 12 months, FB has added 54.9%.
An unwinding of pessimism in the options pits could push Facebook stock higher. This is per the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR), which sits higher than all readings from the last year, indicating short-term options traders have rarely been more put-biased.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 212,000 calls and 135,000 puts have crossed the tape so far, which is three times the intraday average. Most popular is the weekly 7/30 350-strike put, followed by the weekly 7/30 370-strike call. Buyers of the latter expect more upside for FB by the end of the day tomorrow, when these contracts are set to expire.