NIO is up 207% in the last three months
The shares of China-based electrical vehicle-maker NIO Inc (NYSE:NIO) are up 2.6% at $7.36 at last check, earlier touching a fresh annual high of $7.63. While the catalyst for today's surge is unclear, since we last checked in -- after the company announced record-breaking deliveries earlier this month -- the car name has revealed a stock offering of 72 million shares. Up 207% in the last three months, the security also looks to finish the week strong, pacing toward a fourth straight weekly gain.
Analysts are mostly lukewarm on NIO, with five out of six at a "hold," with the remainder sporting a "strong buy." Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $5.10 is a whopping 40% discount to current levels. In simpler terms, NIO looks well overdue for a fresh round of upgrades and/or price-target hikes.
Despite the tepid sentiment, calls are favored in the options pits. The stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 4.27, more than quadrupling puts at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio ranks in the elevated 76th percentile of its annual range, suggesting a preference for long calls over puts of late. Today is looking like more of the same, with 156,000 calls and 36,000 puts across the tape so far.
Meanwhile, though short interest has started to fall in the last reporting period, these 138.45 million shares still account for 18.1% of the stock's available float. In other words, it would take three days to buy back these bearish bets at NIO's average pace of trading.