The social media giant will cut roughly 13% of its workforce
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is up 7.4% to trade at $103.57 at last check, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a letter to employees that the company will be cutting more than 11,000 jobs, or roughly 13% of its workers. This update follows the social media giant's dismal outlook for the fourth quarter, amid overspending, higher costs, and weak ad sales -- and marks one of the biggest tech layoffs this year. Plus, Facebook extended its hiring freeze through the first quarter.
Options traders are chiming in, with 335,000 calls and 163,000 puts across the tape so far, which is double the volume that's typically seen at this point. Most popular is the 11/11 105-strike call, followed by the 100-strike put in that weekly series, with positions being opened at both. This penchant for calls is far from being the norm, though, given put traders have been piling on META of late.
Though short sellers have started to hit the exits, with short interest down 13% in the last two reporting periods, they are still firmly in control. In fact, the 25.87 million shares sold short make up a 44.2% of the security's available float.
The stock has been trying to dig itself out of a Nov. 4, seven-year low of $88.09, but it will take much more than today's pop to erase its 69.1% year-to-date deficit. Shares are also sharply below the 20-day moving average, despite now pacing for their best single-day percentage gain since April 28.