Baird and UBS both upgraded AMD this morning
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is up 3.5% to trade at $74.92 ahead of the bell, after receiving bull notes from Baird and UBS. The former upgraded the shares to "outperform" from "neutral," while the latter upgraded AMD to "buy" and hiked its price target to $95 from $75. Both firms noted positive industry cyclical trends and highlighted strong demand for the chip manufacturer's Genoa chip.
Fresh off its fourth-straight weekly win, Advanced Micro Devices stock is a notable outperformer of late, boasting a 25.1% one-month return versus the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust's (SPY) 11.8% gain in the same timeframe. However, AMD still stands 50.4% lower year-over-year, and has its overhead 80-day moving average to contend with today.
In the options pits, Advanced Micro Devices stock sports a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 0.87 over at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which ranks in the 98th percentile of its annual range. In other words, these traders have had a healthier-than usual appetite for puts in the last two weeks.
Now might be the perfect time for options players to speculate on the stock's next move higher. Advanced Micro Devices stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) sits in the relatively low 30th annual percentile. It's also worth noting the AMD's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) stands at a relatively high 83 out of 100. This means the equity has exceeded options traders' volatility expectations during the past year.