The company also plans to double its share buyback program to $2 billion
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) was last seen down 2.9% to trade at $184.21, brushing off a top- and bottom-line beat for the first quarter. More specifically, the delivery concern saw profits of $3.05 per share, and $24.38 billion in revenue, as it raised prices amid an e-commerce boom, and focused on sectors that generate more revenue and profit, such as healthcare, and small- and medium-sized businesses. What's more, the company plans on doubling its share buyback program to $2 billion.
The equity has seen some volatility so far this year, pulling back to the $186 level after the $224 area turned down its late-March rally. Plus, shares have remained south of the 20-day moving average after slipping below it earlier this month, and carry a 13.8% year-to-date deficit.
Though analysts are yet to chime in on today's report, they are mostly bullish towards UPS, with 10 of the 18 in question calling the stock a "strong buy," while eight said "hold" or worse. Plus, the 12-month consensus target price of $240.18 is a 30.5% premium to current levels.
Over in the options pits, puts have been more popular than usual in the last 10 weeks. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), UPS' 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.84 ranks higher than 86% of readings from the last 12 months. This suggests that while long calls are still outnumbering long puts on an overall basis, the latter are getting picked up at a much quicker-than-usual pace.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 20,000 calls and 11,000 puts have crossed the tape, or 11 times the intraday average. Most popular is the 4/29 200-strike call, followed by the 150-strike put in the same weekly series, with positions currently being opened at the former.