Morgan Stanley upgraded DraftKings stock to "overweight"
Morgan Stanley upgraded Draftkings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) to "overweight" from "in-line" this morning. The analyst foresees the sports betting company as one of the few winners to emerge from a large gambling and gaming market in the U.S. In response, DraftKings stock was last seen 9.3% higher to trade at $21.11.
This isn't the only analyst action DKNG has seen this week, as Moffett Nathanson yesterday slashed its price target to $13 from $23. Both firms are joining a split brokerage bunch, with nine of 18 calling the stock a "strong buy," while the remaining nine say "hold" or worse. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $53.81 is a massive 151.5% premium to current levels.
Options traders are on the move after the bull note. Already, 46,000 calls and 25,000 puts have exchanged hands, which is triple the intraday average. The most popular contract, the weekly 1/28 22-strike call, is seeing new positions being sold to open.
Pacing for its best single-day percentage gain since September 2020, DraftKings stock is back to trading above the $21 level, which it fell below to touch a nearly two-year low of $20.77 on Jan. 24. This means the security has some ground to cover in order to recoup its 23% year-to-date losses, not to mention its 60% deficit in the last 12 months.