Dick's Sporting Goods first-quarter earnings were triple Wall Street's estimates
This morning Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) stepped into the earnings confessional, where the sporting goods retailer reported blowout first-quarter results. Digging deeper, Dick's recorded earnings of $3.79 per share -- more than triple Wall Street's projections -- on revenue that was in line with estimates. In addition, comparable sales more than doubled forecasts, leading the company to provide a full-year outlook that exceeds the current consensus. In response to the positive news, DKS is surging, last seen up 12.1% to trade at a new all-time high of $94.50, and options traders are paying attention.
Today's options pits are seeing a flurry of activity from both sides of the aisle. In just the first hour of trading, nearly 22,000 calls and just under 8,000 puts have crossed the tape -- 20 times the average intraday amount. Leading the charge is the weekly 5/28 100-strike call, followed by the 95-strike call from the same series, with new positions being opened at both.
A shift in these options pits could provide even more tailwinds, as puts have been extremely popular over the last 10 weeks. This is per Dick's Sporting Goods' stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 1.36 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio sits higher than all but 2% of readings from the past 12 months, meaning there's a healthier-than-usual appetite for long puts of late.
Short interest rose ahead of Dick's Sporting Goods stock's earnings, and an unwinding of some of this pessimism could put even more wind at the equity's back. Short interest saw a 6.8% pop in the most recent reporting period, and the 11.35 million shares sold short now make up a hefty 18.1% of the stock's available float. It would take seven days to buy back these bearish bets at DKS' average daily pace of trading.
On the charts, the 50-day moving average has provided support for Dick's Sporting Goods stock for most of 2021 -- a time in which the stock has added over 75%. In addition, DKS just broke above resistance from the 10-day trendline, which put pressure on the shares for the last six sessions.