An activist investor has nominated four new directors to Box's board
The shares of Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) are up 2.7% at $21.73 at last check, following news that activist investor Starboard Value LP plans on taking greater control of the company, nominating four directors for election to its board. Box's current board responded to the statement this morning, noting it does not believe the proposed changes are warranted.
The security's recovery from its late-2020 plummet to the $15 level has been a choppy one, though the 320-day area has provided a floor for some of this volatility back in January and February, before launching the equity to a March 22, two-year high of $26.47. BOX has dropped dramatically since then, suffering a rather large bear gap in early April. Despite the dip, though, the equity still sports a 25.6% year-over-year lead.
It looks like option bears can't get enough of the volatile cloud stock, per BOX's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 5.50 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than all but 1% of readings from the past year. This means long puts have been picked up at a much quicker clip than usual during the past two weeks.
Despite some of this choppiness, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 31% stands in the 1st percentile of its 12-month range, meaning option traders have rarely priced in lower volatility expectations for the security during the past year. In other words, premiums on BOX options are relatively cheap right now.
Not everyone on Wall Street is so pessimistic on BOX. The brokerage bunch has taken a much more bullish stance, with just one of the seven analysts in coverage calling BOX a "strong sell," compared to six "buy" or better ratings. What's more, the 12-month consensus price target of $26.80 is a 24% premium to current levels.