March net sales results were up 8.6% from last year
Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST) stock is up 2.2% at $986.50 at last check, after the grocery giant reported March net sales results of $25.51 billion, up 8.6% from $23.48 billion last year. Plus, Loop Capital noted the company could become a winner should inflation rise amid tariffs.
COST is on track for a third-straight daily gain, after yesterday notching its best single-day percentage pop since January 2023 amid the broad-market rally. Shares recently staged a bounced off a familiar floor at the $880 region, but overhead pressure remains at $1,000. In the last 12 months, the stock added 36.7%.
Call volume is running at triple the intraday average volume today, with 19,000 bullish bets traded so far compared to only 6,620 puts. The most active contract is the April 1,050 call, where new positions are being opened.
This denotes a shift in sentiment, as COST's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.26 that sits in the 80th percentile of annual readings. In other words, short-term traders have been more bearish than usual, and a further unwinding of this pessimism could boost the shares.
Costco Wholesale stock has outperformed options traders' volatility expectations over the last 12 months, making this an excellent opportunity to weigh in with options. This is per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 86 out of 100.