Analysts are weighing in on mobile payments stock Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), automaker General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), and e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on shares of SQ, GM, and AMZN.
Square stock last week soared to a record high of $45.74, and was last seen trading just below this mark at $44.18, following a price-target hike to $37 from $31 at Credit Suisse. The brokerage firm waxed optimistic about the company's foray into digital currency bitcoin.
Even with SQ shares' monster one-year rise of 261%, there are plenty of analysts left on the bears' side. For example, 12 brokerage firms still have tepid "hold" ratings on the equity, suggesting there's potential for additional bull notes to come through and help the stock rise even more on the charts.
Another stock that's been running up the charts is General Motors. Although it has pulled back some from its October record high of $46.76, the shares recently bounced from their 50-day moving average and today are up 1% at 43.88, thanks to an upgrade to "buy" from "neutral" at Guggenheim, which also lifted its price target to $52 from $48. Analysts there expressed confidence in the carmaker's 2018 outlook, saying it has been "de-risked," and waxed optimistic on the stock ahead of GM's Nov. 30 investor day.
Options traders have also been bullish on GM. Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 4.55, which is only 1 percentage point from a 52-week high. This means call buying has been unusually popular relative to put buying.
Instinet this morning raised its price target on Amazon stock to $1,360 from $1,100, and the shares have gained 0.3% to trade at $1,132.80 in response. Moreover, an analyst at GBH Insights is predicting a "blowout" holiday quarter for the e-commerce company, and thus raised his price target to $1,270 from $1,185. For reference, AMZN has a record high of $1,139.90 touched one week ago, and sports a year-to-date gain greater than 50%.
Short-term options traders, though, have taken a rare put-focused stance. This is according to the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.18, good enough to land in the top quartile of the annual range. Said differently, put open interest among options expiring within three months outweighs call open interest by a wider-than-usual margin at the moment.
.