The company's same-store sales lagged slightly behind its biggest competitor
The shares of Lowe's Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) are down 1.6% at $189.57 this morning, despite an upbeat quarterly report. Specifically, the home improvement retailer announced first-quarter earnings of $3.21 per share on revenue of $24.42 billion -- both of which were higher than what analysts anticipated. In addition, Lowe's beat same-store sale estimates as the latest round of stimulus kept demand for home improvement projects high, though it lagged behind main competitor Home Depot's (HD) quarterly same-store sales growth.
Lowe's stock proved to be a major contender during the past year. The equity is up 64.9% in the past 12 months and fresh off of a May 10 all-time high of $215.22. However, LOW is now at risk of locking in its fourth-straight loss, set to close below its 50-day moving average for a second consecutive session -- a move that hasn't happened since early March.
The equity could benefit from a shift in the options pits, as the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.06 stands higher than 89% of readings from the past year. This means short-term option players have been much more put-biased of late.
Drilling down today's options activity, 7,752 calls and 8,779 puts have already exchanged hands, which is two times what is typically seen at this point. Most popular are the May 185 and 180 puts, which expire this Friday.
Lastly, LOW looks like it has been a great target for option buyers of late, based on its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 83 out of 100. This indicates the shares have regularly made bigger moves than option traders were pricing in the past 12 months.