Shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) have gotten off to exceptionally strong starts to 2018. This outperformance has evidently grabbed Wall Street's attention, with both stocks enjoying bullish brokerage attention this morning. Let's take a quick look at INTC and WWE below.
Intel stock is trading 0.2% at $49.92 amid the broad-market headwinds, even though Citigroup resumed coverage on the chipmaker with a "buy" rating and $58 price target -- representing upside of 17% from current levels. INTC just yesterday touched its highest point since September 2000 at $50.85, and sports a year-to-date gain of 8.3%, thanks mostly to last week's blowout earnings report.
It's probably not surprising then that optimism has been building on the Dow component. For starters, short interest just plummeted by 30% in the last two reporting periods. Plus, call buying has essentially tripled put buying during the past two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). But nine brokerage firms still have "hold" or worse opinions on Intel, so there's room for more bull notes to come through in the near term.
Shares of WWE have managed to gain 1.3% so far to trade at a record high of $34.67, after Morgan Stanley upped its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "equal weight" and set a price target of $40. The brokerage firm believes the current media environment will benefit companies with popular intellectual property likeWorld Wrestling Entertainment.
The security has skyrocketed over 63% since bouncing from its 200-day moving average in October. More recently, WWE quickly overcame a bear gap set off by CEO Vince McMahon's sale of $100 million worth of shares. The stock has added 12% so far in 2018.
Short sellers have been ditching this name as well, evidenced by a 11.6% decline in the number of shorted shares during the past two reporting periods. At the same time, 11% of the float remains in the hands of these bears, suggesting there's room for more short covering. Plus, half the analysts in coverage have just "hold" ratings in place, so more upgrades are a possibility, too.