Kohl's missed third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations
Kohl's Corp (NYSE:KSS) stock is down 19.9% to trade at $14.71 at last glance, after the retailer's third-quarter earnings and revenue missed estimates. The company also revealed Michaels CEO Ashley Buchanan will replace its current CEO Tom Kingsbury, effective Jan. 15. In response to the results, J.P. Morgan Securities cut its price target to $13 from $17.
KSS gapped to a fresh four-year low of $14.53 earlier, after running into familiar overhead pressure at the $19 level. Shares have also struggled with resistance at the 40-day moving average since late October, and are pacing for their worst single-day percentage drop since February. So far this year, KSS has shed more than 48%.
Options traders are blasting the equity today, with 31,000 puts and 27,000 calls traded so far, which is nine times the volume typically seen at this point. The most active contract is the weekly 11/29 15-strike put.
That marks a sentiment shift. The retail stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.06 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks in the 90th percentile of its annual range.
Short sellers have been piling on KSS. The 35.54 million shares sold short now account for a whopping 32.4% of the equity's available float, or more than one week's worth of pent-up buying power.