Bulls Have Been Getting Behind Imax

Call options have been popular on IMAX

Imax Corp (NYSE:IMAX) just received an upgrade to "buy" from "hold" from Canaccord Genuity, which set a $25 price target on the stock. In its note, the brokerage firm called out the company's performance in China, and said several key titles on the 2020 movie slate were shot with IMAX cameras. The bullish recommendation puts Canaccord in line with its analyst peers, as six of the seven in coverage already had "buy" or "strong buy" ratings on the security.

What's more, bullish activity has picked up in the options pits, too. Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 14.29, which shows more than 14 calls were bought to open for every put in the past two weeks. More telling still is the reading's 80th annual percentile rank, revealing that such a preference for calls is rare.

During this time frame, the November 23 call saw the largest increase in open interest, and the November 22 call wasn't far behind. In fact, the former contract is now home to peak open interest on IMAX.

Not everyone's on board, however, with short interest representing almost 12 days' worth of buying power, based on average daily trading volumes. Regardless, the stock is up 2.8% today at $21.94, putting it at least momentarily above recent resistance at the 50- and 200-day moving averages.