Ford will report its earnings results on Thursday, Feb. 4 before the open
Automaker Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has garnered significant momentum after it bottomed below $4 back on March 23. This culminated in a Jan. 21 two-year high of $12.15. Despite a lofty upgrade last week, most of the brokerage community has been hesitant to hop in, with seven of the 11 in coverage maintaining tepid "hold" stances. Their skepticism could come from F's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) that sits all the way up at 72. This means that the equity is firmly in "overbought" territory, and a short-term breather may be imminent.
Ford is scheduled to report earnings after the market closes on Thursday, Feb. 4. Ford has beat analysts' expectations on half of its most recent earnings reports. However, that's only resulted in one post-earnings move higher for 2020, a tame 2.6% gain on Oct. 29. This time around though, the options market is pricing in a larger-than-usual post-earnings move of 9.2%, regardless of direction.
Meanwhile, the options pits have been overwhelmingly. This is per F's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 8.43 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Not only does this show that calls outnumber puts by a more than eight-to-one margin in the last two weeks, but the ratio sits two percentage points from an annual high, showing a strong penchant for puts relative to the last year.