Softbank is selling a third of its stake in Uber
The shares of Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) are down 3.2% at $44.65 at last check, after Softbank announced last night it was selling roughly a third of its stake in the tech giant. Goldman Sachs priced a 45 million share block trade, re-offering the shares at $44.15, which is a 4.3% discount to last night's close, and worth roughly $2 billion at the stock's current price.
Today's drop marked the stock's lowest level since mid-May, with shares gapping below the 320-day moving average for the first time since September. The equity has been chopping lower over the past month, after a multi-month consolidation period below the $51 level. Year-over-year, however, UBER sports a 43.9% lead.
Options traders have remained optimistic. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), 3.29 calls have been picked up for every put during the past 10 weeks. This ratio stands higher than 70% of readings from the past year, suggesting a much healthier-than-usual appetite for long calls of late.
Calls are winning out in today's trading, too, with 100,00 calls and 24,000 puts across the tape so far, which is three times the intraday average. The most popular by far is the weekly 8/6 49-strike call, followed by the 45-strike call in the same series, with positions being opened at both.