ZNGA is on track to cross its year-to-date breakeven level
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) stock is up 2.3% in electronic trading this morning, after Stifel initiated coverage on the internet game developer with a "buy" rating and $5 price target. The analyst in coverage waxed optimistic on the mobile gaming industry as a whole, but specifically likes Zynga's "expectations of greater visibility on its game pipeline."
Should today's price action pan out, Zynga stock -- which closed yesterday at $3.96 -- would be back above its year-to-date breakeven level. Stifel's price target represents territory ZNGA has not traded in since early 2014. This year, the stock got as close as $4.57 back in June, but promptly pulled back. For the past month, the shares have relied on double-barreled support from their 160- and 200-day moving averages.
As for options activity, while absolute volume has been typically light, recently there's been some notable ZNGA call activity across the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Looking at the past 10 days, more than 3,430 calls were bought to open at these exchanges, compared to just 144 puts, putting the 10-day call/put volume ratio at 23.82.
Now seems to be an attractive time to purchase short-term ZNGA options too. This is per it's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 31%, which ranks in the 10th percentile of its annual range. In simpler terms, short-term options are cheap, from a volatility perspective.