Paramount Global stock has intriguing short squeeze potential, too
Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) stock is 6% higher in premarket trading, following an upgrade from Bank of America. The Wall Street broker upgraded the legacy media giant's shares to "buy" from "neutral," and hiked its price target to $32 from $24. Bank of America cited Paramount's strong assets, which could benefit the company's value should the business be put up for sale.
There's plenty of room for additional an unwinding of pessimism on PARA. Coming into today, 14 of 20 covering brokerages rated the equity a "hold" or worse. Further, short interest jumped 8.2% over the last month, and the 89.72 million shares sold short account for 15.6% of Paramount Global stock's available float.
It's a similar theme among options traders. The security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.27 that stands in the 89th percentile of annual readings, short-term options traders have rarely been more put-biased over the past year.
Should today's premarket gains hold, PARA will open at its highest level in three weeks, though it remains below a post-earnings pullback level from February. The shares' 200-day moving average could also be tested today. Year-over-year , the stock is down 46%.