Options Bulls Blast Western Digital Stock After Company Update

Calls are running at four times what's typically seen

Laura McCandless

Deputy Editor

Jun 8, 2022 at 2:56 PM

The shares of Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) are reversing their morning gains, down 4.2% to trade at $57.78 at last glance, after news that the company is evaluating strategic alternatives as it looks to increase value for long-term shareholders. This comes about a month after activist investor Elliott Management pushed Western Digital to consider separating the itself into hard disk drive (HDD) and flash-memory units in the hopes of more profitable operations.

In response, calls are taking off in the options pits, with 43,000 across the tape today -- four times the intraday average in terms of volume. The July 65 call accounts for the bulk of this activity, and is also the top open interest position.

Earlier, the stock jumped as high as $63 before it was rejected by familiar pressure at that level. Several moving averages linger below as support, however, including the 140-day trendline. Year-to-date, WDC is down 10.8%.

wdc june 8

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