Option Bulls Win Big After Snap Earnings

Snap is headed toward its best day in almost a year

The shares of Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) have surged 25.5% out of the gate to trade at $8.82. Fueling the upside is the Snapchat parent's impressive earnings report, as well as a round of bullish brokerage notes. As such, SNAP stock is set for its best day since Feb. 7, 2018, when it jumped 47.6% in a single session.

For the fourth quarter, Snap unveiled a per-share adjusted loss of 4 cents, slimmer than the 7 cents per-share loss analysts were expecting. The social media name also said revenue came in at a higher-than-anticipated $390 million and reported 186 million daily active users -- unchanged from the previous quarter. Plus, CEO Evan Spiegel said the company was close to being profitable.

Analysts have rushed to raise their outlooks on SNAP stock -- though there's plenty of room for more bull notes to come down the pike. While Raymond James upgraded the equity to "market perform" from "underperform," no fewer than 12 brokerages raised their Snap price targets. Included in the bunch was Credit Suisse, which upped its target price to $10.50 from $9.50, territory not seen since early September.

Options traders, meanwhile, loaded up on long calls over puts at an unusual clip ahead of earnings. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), SNAP's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 1.85 ranks in the 73rd annual percentile.

Drilling down, the February 8 call saw a notable rise in open interest over this two-week time frame, and data suggests a number of positions were bought to open last Friday for $0.22 apiece. The ask price of these calls were last seen at $0.82, meaning call buyers are staring at a big profit.