The luxury retailer saw a 37% surge in online sales in the third quarter
The shares of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) are up 11.4% at $27.35 this morning, after the luxury retailer reported surprise third-quarter earnings of $0.34 per share, significantly higher than Wall Street's estimated losses of $0.06 per share. The fashion giant attributed the strong results to a 37% surge in online sales. And though the company missed revenue estimates, it still received no less than seven price-target hikes this morning, including one from Cowen and Company to $28 from $16.
Today's pop has Nordstrom stock on pace for its highest close since March. The equity has been steadily climbing up the charts over the past couple of weeks, with newfound support from the ascending 10-day moving average, which has helped the equity break through overhead pressure at the $25 mark. Quarter-to-date, JWN is up an impressive 131.5%.
Analysts were mostly pessimistic toward the equity coming into today, leaving plenty of room for upgrades and/or additional price-target hikes going forward. Of the 12 in coverage, 10 carried a tepid "hold" or worse rating. Plus, the stock's 12-month consensus target of $22.11 is a substantial 19.9% discount to current levels.
Digging deeper, a short squeeze could create additional tailwinds for the equity. Short interest is up 3.9% in the last two reporting periods, and the 49.35 million shares sold short account for a whopping 45.4% of the stock's available float, or exactly a week's worth of pent-up buying power.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 36,000 calls have crossed the tape in just the first half hour of trading, which is five times the average intraday amount, and almost twice the number of puts exchanged. Most popular by far is the monthly December 30 call, followed by the weekly 12/4 30-strike call, with new positions currently being opened at the latter.