Tech stock Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR) was up more than 10% in early trading, after the company settled infringement litigation with Samsung. The firm also said it inked a deal with Sony to license its advanced haptic patents to be used in VR and gaming controllers. However, despite also raising its full-year revenue guidance and beating analysts' per-share earnings estimates, IMMR shares have swung to a loss of 7.8% to trade at $8.50, and it looks like some option bulls are hitting the exits.
Immersion shares are on pace for a third straight day in the red, after suffering an 11.3% drop yesterday. IMMR stock is now set for its lowest close in more than a month, and its worst week since August.
Analysts were optimistic following Immersion's slew of announcements. Dougherty & Co upgraded IMMR to "buy" from "neutral," and lifted its price target to $13, while Craig-Hallum upped its price target to $14 from $12. Prior to today, IMMR sported just one "strong buy" and two tepid "hold" ratings, with a consensus 12-month price target of $12.
Meanwhile, IMMR's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.15 sits in the low 4th percentile of its annual range. This suggests that short-term option players have rarely been more call-heavy in the past year.
Today, calls are still the rage, with more than 12,000 IMMR calls traded so far. That's 20 times its average intraday call volume, and about 12 times the number of puts traded. It looks like some bulls may be hitting the exits, selling to close the now out-of-the-money June 10 call, which is the most active option so far.