Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Bombarded by Last-Minute Bulls

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw its price target raised to $425 from $380 at Baird, which reiterated its "outperform" rating. Even though the equity was last seen 0.1% lower at $384.27, speculators are betting on upside in the near term, with calls crossing at an accelerated clip today. Specifically, AMZN's weekly 3/6 series is in high demand, as each of the stock's 10 most popular contracts expires at the close this Friday.

The security's most popular contract is the weekly 3/6 390-strike call, where buy-to-open activity has been detected. Speculators purchasing these contracts are betting on AMZN to top $390 before the contracts expire at Friday's close. Delta on the option is 0.27, meaning it has a roughly 1-in-4 chance of moving into the money by expiration.

Going by what's normally seen in AMZN's option pits, it's unusual for short-term speculators to prefer calls over puts. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.43 ranks in its 95th annual percentile. This tells us the security's near-term options traders have preferred puts over calls by a wider margin only 5% of the time in the past year.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been running on all cylinders this year. The shares boast a year-to-date lead of nearly 24%, much of which came from a post-earnings bull gap in late January. Now, it appears AMZN has found a foothold atop its 10-day moving average, currently located at $382.55.