Starbucks Stock Has Room to Run

An overdue round of bull notes could create tailwinds for SBUX

Coffee stock Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) recently bounced off its 80-day trendline for the second time this year. With the shares forming a symmetrical triangle and sitting just atop their post-earnings bull-gap levels from early November, SBUX could have found a new short-term floor.

Analysts remain divided, so a round of bull notes is certainly in play. Of the 23 brokerages covering the equity, 11 rate it a tepid "hold." At the same time, short sellers have been in covering mode, with short interest down 27.3% in the last two reporting periods.

A shift in sentiment in the options pits could also help fuel short-term upside for SBUX. For example, the 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is 1.31, good enough to rank in the 88th annual percentile. Further, the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 3.27 sits in the 82nd percentile of its annual range, suggesting that near-term traders have rarely been more put biased in the past 12 months.

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