The tech retailer beat fourth-quarter earnings and revenue estimates
Tech retailer Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) announced a fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat this morning thanks to holiday deals that bumped consumer demand. The company's comparable quarterly sales also fell less than anticipated. At last check, BBY was up 5.6% at $84.13.
The security earlier hit its highest level since August, and is on track for a seventh-straight daily win and best day since December. The stock staged a bounce off its 20-day moving average, and added more than 14% in the last nine months, with a 7% gain so far in 2024.
The security looks ripe for a short squeeze. The 17.61 million shares sold short make up 9.2% of Best Buy stock's available float, or nearly seven days' worth of pent-up buying power. A shift in analyst sentiment could also generate tailwinds, as 15 out of 21 of the firms in coverage sport a "hold" or worse rating, while the 12-month consensus target price of $76.52 is an 8.6% discount to current levels.
So far today, 9,755 calls and 6,416 puts have been traded, which is five times the intraday average volume. Most popular is the weekly 3/1 86-strike call, with positions opening there.
Short-term options traders lean bearish, indicating a potential shift in sentiment. This is per BBY's s Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 2.18 that sits in the 95th percentile of readings from the past year.