The company's Eve mothership took to the skies yesterday
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) yesterday, after the company's VMS Eve mothership completed its first test flight in more than 15 months, following a number of upgrades to the aircraft carrier.
The stock experienced its best session since in 12 months in response, adding roughly 14% during yesterday's trading. Today, SPCE was last seen 1.8% higher to trade at $6.12, and extending an impressive 70.4% year-to-date lead.
Bullish options traders are chiming in this morning, with the 19,000 calls exchanged so far, or quadruple the volume usually seen at this point. The most popular position is the the February 6.50 call, followed by the 6 call in the same monthly series.
A broader look shows investors have been picking up calls at a much faster-than-usual pace of late. This is per SPCE's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 3.03 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than all other readings from the past year.
The 52.31 million shares sold short make up 23.4% of Virgin Galactic stock's available float, or more than six days' worth of pent-up buying power. What's more, analysts are mostly bearish on Virgin Galactic stock, with all but two of nine in question calling SPCE a tepid "hold" or worse.