GoPro Inc (GPRO) has dropped to another annual low, sparking furious options betting
It's been an ugly week for
GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO). Today alone, the shares have fallen 5.6% to $31.98, earlier touching an annual low of $31.32. Amid this price action, option traders are rushing in once again, with both put and call volume running at twice the expected intraday amount.
On a closer look, six of GPRO's 10 most active contracts today belong to the weekly 9/11 series. The top two spots go to the 32- and 33-strike calls, which have seen a mix of seller- and buyer-driven action ahead of expiration tonight.
Outside of the weekly series, it looks like bulls are buying to open the October 30 call, betting on GPRO to find round-number support in the short term. Bears, meanwhile, are apparently buying to open the weekly 10/23 30-strike put, which will move into the money if GPRO breaches $30 -- and hits lower lows -- by expiration on Friday, Oct. 23.
Although intraday call volume has outpaced put volume today, the stock's options traders have been upping the bearish ante of late. GPRO's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX)
put/call volume ratio of 0.74 outranks over two-thirds of other readings from the past year. In layman's terms:
puts have been bought to open over
calls at a faster-than-usual rate.
On the Street, however, most analysts are positioned in the bulls' corner. Of the 14 brokerage firms covering the shares, 10 consider them a "buy" or better. Also, GPRO's average 12-month price target of $71.71 stands at more than double current levels.
Considering GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) has been in free-fall recently -- the stock has surrendered nearly one-third of its value in September thus far -- the equity's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) has fallen deep in oversold territory.