MCFE saw a surge in RaaS, IoT, and cryptocurrency threats
The shares of McAfee Corp (NASDAQ:MCFE) are up 0.9% to trade at $28.49 at last check, after the software concern reported a surge in ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), Internet of Things (IoT), and cryptocurrency threats over the first quarter. The company also said it saw attackers shift from mass-spread campaigns to fewer, more lucrative targets, with newly detected malware threats averaging 688 per minute. In other news, its founder John McAfee was found dead in a Spanish prison.
On the charts, McAfee stock has been middling around the $28.50 level, after just last week surging to a June 18, all-time high of $29.36, with support from its 20-day moving average. Shares have come a long way since the security went public in October, with MCFE now boasting a 70.7% year-to-date lead.
The brokerage bunch is mostly optimistic towards the security, with five of eight analysts in coverage calling it a "strong buy," while the only three said "hold." Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus target price of $27 is a 5.5% discount to the stock's current perch.
The equity's usually quiet options pits are brimming with activity today. So far, 800 calls and 446 puts have crossed the tape, or five times the intraday average. Most popular is the July 30 call, followed by the 25 put in the same series.
Those investors are in luck, as MCFE options can be had for a bargain at the moment. This is per the stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 35%, which sits in the low 10th percentile of readings from the past year. This means options players are pricing in low volatility expectations right now.