Stitch Fix director Bill Gurley bought an additional one million shares of the styling name
The shares of Stitch Fix Inc (NASDAQ:SFIX) are surging this morning, last seen up 12.9% at $5.81. These tailwinds came after venture capitalist and Stitch Fix director Bill Gurley raised his stake in the online styling concern through the purchase of one million shares at roughly $5.43 per share.
The security is on track to snap a three-day losing streak, should these gains hold. It has been a tough year for Stitch Fix stock so far, with the 40-day moving average keeping a tight lid on the equity most of the time, and driving the shares to a July 5, record low of $4.66. Year-over-year, SIFX remains down 90.7%.
The brokerage bunch is on the fence, with 12 of the 14 analysts in coverage carrying a tepid "hold" rating. Meanwhile, shorts sellers are in control, with the 12.84 million share sold short making up 16.2% of the stock's available float, which is roughly four days' worth of pent-up buying power.
Options traders have been overwhelmingly pessimistic. This is per the security's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 4.50 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than 98% of readings from the past year. This suggests long puts have have been getting picked up at a much faster-than-usual clip.
Today's options pits paint a different picture, however. So far, 3,102 calls have crossed the tape, or nine times the intraday average, as opposed to 1,706 puts. The most popular contract is the July 6 call, followed by the August 7.50 call, with positions currently being opened at both.