The software company's annual guidance is weighing on the shares
Shares of Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE) are down 12.8% at $479.45 at last glance, after the software name's disappointing full-year and fiscal first-quarter forecasts, despite better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. In response, TD Cowen downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy" and lowered its price target to $550 from $625, while a flood of other analysts slashed their price objectives as well.
Today's bear gap has ADBE headed for its worst single-day percentage loss since its March earnings report. The $475 level appears to be keeping losses in check, however, as it did in late October and early November.
A short-term pullback was likely already in the cards, per ADBE's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) of 80.2, with puts it firmly in "oversold" territory. The equity has now broken below all daily moving averages between the key 20- and 320-day trendlines, as it furthers its 20% year-to-date deficit.
Over in the options pits, 83,000 calls and 67,000 puts have been exchanged, which is already 10 times ADBE's average daily options volume. The weekly 12/13 480-strike put is the most popular contract, with new positions opening there.
Calls were popular ahead of today's event, too. Adobe stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.68 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than all other readings from the past year.