Remote Work Has Slack Stock Rallying

Slack Technologies has gained 9,000 customers so far in March

Slack Technologies Inc (NYSE: WORK) is up 10.9% to trade at $28.72 at last check. This comes after the news that so far in March, the average use of the team communication tool has increased by 20% and gained 9,000 paid customers. The pandemic pushing people to work remote has attracted much more attention to Slack, and in the past week Wells Fargo raised its price target to $30 from $17 and D.A. Davidson raised theirsto $20 from $17.

Analysts lean bullish overall, with 10 out of 17 sport a "buy" or "strong buy" and six of the remaining seven considering a tepid "hold." Plus, the 12-month consensus target price is $24.63, a 12.8% premium to current levels. After bouncing up off of a recent record low of $15.10 on March 16, the stock is now up 25.8% year-to-date.

In the last two reporting periods, short interest has dropped 26.5% to 33.91 million shares. These pessimistic positions make up 17.5% of the stock's available float, or roughly three days at the stock's average price of trading. In other words, there's ample amount of bearish bets that could unwind and push WORK higher.

Calls have been favored in the options pits, as WORK sports a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 4.35 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Today is more of the same, as 62,000 calls have crossed the tape so far in comparison to only 13,000 puts. The most popular is the March 29 call, followed by the March 30 call -- new positions are being opened in both.