Burlington Stock Bounces After Earnings Beat

The retailer's fourth-quarter earnings exceeded analysts' expectations

Shares of Burlington Stores Inc (NYSE:BURL) are up 1.1% at $221.12 this morning after announcing fourth-quarter profits of $3.25 per share, which was right on the money for Wall Street's estimations, and a 42-cent increase from the same quarter last year. And while the retail sector continues to struggle amidst the growing coronavirus outbreak, BURL was happy to report revenue of $2.20 billion, which also beat analysts' expectations.

While Burlington appears to have pulled back after hitting an all-time high of $250.89 last month, most of these losses were captured by the stock's $210 level. Now, BURL is pushing back up against its 30-day moving average, which happens to coincide with the equity's year-to-date breakeven level.

Most analysts are extremely optimistic on BURL. In fact, just three of the 17 in coverage call the stock a "hold," while the rest say "buy" or better.Meanwhile, the security's consensus 12-month target price of $248.48 sits just below its record high and is a 9.4% premium to current levels.

In the options pits, Burlington's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.25 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) sits higher than 86% of all other readings from the past 12 months. Simply put, long calls have been purchased over long puts at a faster-than-usual clip.