The Office Max parent announced the sale of its CompuCom unit
The shares of ODP Corp (NASDAQ:ODP) are up 6% to trade at $41.63 this morning, after the Office Max parent announced the sale of its CompuCom unit in a deal valued at roughly $305 million in cash, an interest-bearing promissory note, and a contingent future earn out. Separately, ODP said it authorized an additional $200 million on top of its existing $450 million stock buyback program.
ODP rang in 2022 with a comfortable 34.1% year-over-year return, thanks in part to a sharp bounce off familiar support at the $35 level. Plus, the security broke through a ceiling at the 20-day moving average in December, which could continue to act as a floor going forward.
Despite this recent rebound, short sellers have been piling on ODP, with short interest up an eyebrow-raising 99.1% over the last two reporting periods. The 7.29 million shares sold short make up 14.5% of the stock's available float, and would take almost a month to cover, at ODP's average daily pace of trading.
Short-term options players, meanwhile, have rarely been more put-biased. This is per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 3.49, which ranks higher than 89% of readings from the past year.