Grubhub was raised to "perform" from "underperform"
Food delivery service GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB) is down 7.1% to trade at $48.21 today. As food delivery stocks are appealing amidst a global pandemic, GRUB was upgraded to "perform" from "underperform" by Oppenheimer today. However, while it might have lessened the blow, it doesn't seem to be enough to push the equity out of the surrounding broad-market selloff.
GrubHub stock appears to be on track to fall back below the support of its 100-day moving average. So far there haven't been any major pullbacks in 2020, and GRUB has been able to stay above the $45 mark. The stock is teetering along its year-to-date breakeven level, and heading into today analysts were leaning bearish, with 18 out of 24 sporting a "hold," "sell," or "strong sell" rating.
Calls are favored in the options pits, as GRUB sports a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.27 at the International Securites Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) that sits higher than 79% of readings from the past year. In fact, in the past 10 days, calls have more than doubled puts.
Year-over-year the equity remains 34% lower, so some of that call buying could mean that shorts are seeking an options hedge, protecting themselves against a possible rise by GRUB in the near future. Currently it would take over a week for short sellers to buy back their bearish bets, as short interest now represents a healthy 19.59% of the stock's available float.