Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is up 0.8% to trade at $1,564.33, and earlier hit a record high of $1,565.25, afterUBS upped its price target on the e-commerce powerhouse to $1,760 from $1,620. This represents a 12.5% premium from the security's current perch.
Amazon stock rode its momentum from 2017 into the new year, already tacking on 33%. The shares have been guided higher by their 10-week moving average since October. The equity is currently on track for a six-day winning streak, and its fourth straight week in the black.
To no surprise, call buying continues to be popular. Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows AMZN with a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.15, ranking in the elevated 83rd percentile of its annual range. This indicates calls have been bought over puts at a much faster-than-usual clip in the past 10 weeks.
What's more, AMZN's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.99 ranks in just the 22nd percentile of its annual range. This indicates that short-term speculators have rarely been more call-skewed toward the stock during the past 52 weeks.
It's an attractive time to buy premium on short-term Amazon options, too. Its Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 21% ranks in the 20th annual percentile. In other words, relatively low volatility expectations were being priced into short-term contracts. Plus, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) is docked at a lofty 90, meaning Amazon has consistently made big moves on the chart over the past year, relative to the options market's expectations.