Calls are flying off the shelves today
Weber Inc (NYSE:WEBR) is surging today, last seen up 30.4% to trade at $6.57, after BDT Capital Partners offered to buy the grill company for $6.25 per share, or about $1.8 billion, which is a 24.3% premium to yesterday's close. In response, BMO hiked WEBR's price target to $6.25 from $6.
Options traders are blasting the equity today. So far, 17,000 calls and 5,088 puts have crossed the tape, which is 12 times the volume that's typically seen at this point. Most popular is the November 7.50 call, followed by the December 7.50 call, with positions being bought to open at both.
This appetite for bullish bets has been the norm for the past 10 weeks. This is per Weber stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 5.31 over at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which ranks higher than 89% of reading from the last 12 months.
Echoing this, short-term options traders have rarely been more call-biased, given the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.90 stands higher than just 13% of annual readings.
It's also worth noting Weber stock looks primed for a short squeeze. Short interest is up 5.7% in the last two reporting periods, and the 8.29 million shares sold short make up a massive 48.3% of WEBR's available float.
The shares are today pacing for their best single-day percentage gain on record, as they bounce from yesterday's record low of $5.03. Year-to-date, however, WEBR is still down 49.4%, with overhead pressure from the 80-day moving average keeping a tight lid on this bull gap.