Traders were unusually bullish on Life Storage (LIS)
Life Storage Inc (NYSE:LSI) stock just made it onto Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of S&P MidCap 400 Index (IDX) stocks that attracted the highest weekly options volume in the last 10 days. The stock saw 162,390 calls compared to just 802 puts over the last two weeks, with the April 125 call standing out as the most popular contract. This comes just after Extra Space Storage (EXR) announced its acquisition of the company.
This denotes a shift in the options pits. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), Life Storage stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 2.70 ranks higher than 90% of readings from the past year. Echoing this, the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio of 5.62 stands in the 98th percentile of annual readings.
It's worth pointing out that over this two-week time period, Life Storage stock received at least three bull notes. Specifically, Jefferies, Evercore ISI, and UBS raised the respective price targets to $139, $146, and $137. Meanwhile, seven of 10 covering brokerages rate LSI a "hold," and the 12-month average target price of $139.67 is a slim 5% premium to current levels.
Today, LSI is fractionally higher to trade at $132.96. The shares recently nabbed a new annual high of $146.66, though they're freshly removed from a second-straight weekly loss. Still, year-to-date, Life Storage stock is up more than 35%.
