Apple Keeps U.S. Stores Closed Until Early May

AAPL puts have risen in popularity

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has implemented a plethora of new measures to help protect both customers and employees from the infectious coronavirus, including a policy that limited customers to two iPhones per online transaction, and another that saw all of its brick-and-mortar stores outside of China close. While the former policy was rescinded shortly after, Apple yesterday announcedit plans to keep U.S. stores closed until early May, while remaining flexible about staff's ability to work from home. AAPL is currently down 0.1% to trade at $244.80.

The FAANG stock has spent much of the last two weeks consolidating below the $260 mark, to the tune of a 16.6% year-to-date deficit. Additionally, the security is staring up at its 20-day moving average, a trendline that recently made the switch from support to a resistance during the broad market sell-off.

Analysts are all over the place with AAPL stock, but the majority are bullish. Of the 26 analysts covering the equity, 21 call it a "buy" or better. Four more sport a "hold" position and one rates it a "strong sell." Echoing this is the stock's consensus 12-month price target of $308.52 which is a nifty 26.4% premium to its current levels.

Puts currently dominate in the options pits for AAPL stock. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the equity sports a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 0.84 that sits higher than 92% of readings from the past year. So while this indicates that calls still outnumber puts on an absolute basis, the lofty ratio suggests puts are outpacing calls at an unusually fast clip.

Lastly, AAPL's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a high 96 (out of 100.) This indicates that the stock has tended to exceed option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.