Unusual Options Activity Tue 10/10/23

The following options are exhibiting notable trading, potentially indicating changing sentiment toward the underlying stocks, and/or potentially representing positioning for increased volatility.

Bullish Call Activity:

• PLUG Oct 7 calls are seeing interest with the underlying stock up 11% (volume: 11.8K, open int: 7370, implied vol: ~99%, prev day implied vol: 93%). 1000 contracts traded in a single transaction. Co is expected to report earnings early November.
• HLF Nov 17.5 calls (volume: 5560, open int: 0, implied vol: ~76%, prev day implied vol: 70%). 4100 contracts traded in a single transaction. Co is confirmed to report earnings November 1 before the open.
• STNE Nov 12 calls are seeing interest with the underlying stock up 5% (volume: 3010, open int: 10, implied vol: ~52%, prev day implied vol: 48%). 3K traded in a single transaction. Co is expected to report earnings mid-November.
• JBLU Oct 5 calls are seeing interest with the underlying stock up 4% (volume: 2260, open int: 500, implied vol: ~12%, prev day implied vol: 10%). Co is expected to report earnings late October.
  

Bearish Put Activity:

• SAVE Jan24 15 puts (volume: 1860, open int: 40, implied vol: ~120%, prev day implied vol: 99%). Co is expected to report earnings late October.
• JOBY Apr24 6 puts (volume: 2050, open int: 0, implied vol: ~68%, prev day implied vol: 65%). Kerrisdale Capital is short JOBY; "In its path to almost certain failure, it's going to incinerate billions of investor capital or just go bust." Co is expected to report earnings early November.
  

Sentiment: The CBOE Put/Call ratio is currently: 1.08, VIX: (16.71, -0.99, -5.6%).
October 20 is options expiration -- the last day to trade October equity options.

-=StoneCo (STNE) reported earnings on Wed 27 May 20 (b/o)

StoneCo reports Q1 results and provides guidance

Co reports Q1 EPS of R 0.58 vs R 0.77 Capital IQ consensus. Total Revenue and Income was R$716.8 million (Capital IQ consensus $698.03 mln)  in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 33.8% from R$535.8 million in the first quarter of 2019. Total Revenue and Income growth was driven primarily by the 42.1% increase in TPV.

"We expect to see the greatest impact from COVID-19 in the second quarter. Nonetheless, we anticipate our Adjusted Pre-Tax Margin to be positive, at between 20% and 24% in 2Q20. This expected range takes into account the negative effect on Pre-Tax Income of one-off severance expenses related to the reduction in our workforce announced on May 12th, as well as one-off expenses related to temporary incentives we are giving clients in the context of COVID-19."

This week's biggest % winners & losers : April 15 - 19, 2019 (wk 16)

The following are this week's top percentage gainers and losers, categorized by sectors (over $300 mln market cap and 100K average daily volume).

This week's top 20 % gainers

• Healthcare: ARQL (6.54 +17.63%), CTLT (43.97 +12%)
• Industrials: ADSW (32.83 +20.97%), BGG (14.1 +12.35%), PATK (55.13 +12.08%), MRTN (20.44 +11.69%)
• Materials: AMRS  (5.02  +74.91%)
• Consumer Discretionary: NEW (13.14 +31.93%), ADNT (25.91 +24.99%), TLRD (8.23 +10.62%), GOOS (52.68 +9.89%)
• Information Technology: QCOM (79.89 +40.28%), EFII (37.51 +27.59%), ADTN (16.59 +15.29%)
• Financials: QD (6.60 +15.59%)
• Energy: MDR (9.92 +10.22%)
• Consumer Staples: SFS (6.52 +18.33%), PPC (25.82 +11.15%), ELF (12.96 +10.96%), MGPI (87.3 +10.31%),

This week's top 20 % losers

• Healthcare: APHA (7.65 -24.26%), THC (23.41 -19.3%), INSP (47.07 -18.58%), COLL (13.52 -18.51%), MDGL (105.56 -16.77%), MNK (18.23 -16.18%), TBIO (9.99 -16.05%), STAA (31.21 -14.94%), IONS (72.99 -13.73%), PRQR (11.34 -13.37%)
• Consumer Discretionary: SNBR (39.16 -19.72%), SKX (31.60  -8.17%)
• Information Technology: STNE (26.51 -24.79%), CEVA (23.3 -19.04%)
• Financials: EHTH (54.76 -17.26%)
• Energy: ROAN (4.43 -22.82%), ALTM (5.00 -14.53%), GPOR (6.69 -13.57%)

StoneCo (STNE) drops on anticipated competitive risk

Competition pressure in the Brazilian payments sector seems on the verge of disruption and intensification as Ita Unibanco (ITUB) has reportedly announced that it will not charge interest rates on cash advancements for small- and medium-sized merchants; stock plunges to its lowest levels in almost two months.

StoneCo (STNE) earnings on Mon 18 March 19 (a/h)

• Brazilian version of Square (SQ)

** charts before earnings **

 

** charts after earnings **

StoneCo reports Q4 results; Beats on revs (two analysts); Take Rate and Net Adds in line with preannouncement 

• Reports Q4 (Dec) adjusted net income of BRL 155.9 mln vs. adjusted net income of $20.9 mln in the prior year; revenues rose 113.6% year/year to BRL 529.4 mln vs the BRL 465.62 mln two analyst estimate.
• The number of active clients increased by 136.7 thousand in fiscal year 2018, reaching a total of 267.9 thousand clients at the end of the year, up 104.1% compared to 2017.
• The Company's take rate reached 1.88% (preannounced) in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to 1.58% in the fourth quarter of 2017, a 30 basis point increase year over year.
• Total Payment Volume (TPV) was R$26.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 73.8% from R$15.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017.
• The Company ended 2018 with 267.9 thousand active clients, up 104.1% compared to the previous year, when it had 131.2 thousand clients. The net addition of active clients in the fourth quarter was 33.5K (preannounced), an improvement in net addition per sales force working day compared to the third quarter of 2018 by approximately 10%.

StoneCo (STNE) reported earnings on Mon 26 Nov 18 (a/h)

• Other top payments stocks: Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), PayPal (PYPL), Square (SQ) 
• Recent Brazilian IPO

** chart 3 days after earnings **

Warren Buffett-Backed IPO Reports Adjusted Earnings Jump Of 1,467%

Brazilian fintech firm StoneCo (STNE), which counts Warren Buffett as a backer, reported adjusted earnings soared in Q3, in its first report since an October IPO.

StoneCo Earnings
Estimates: Wall Street expects the Brazilian credit-card processor's earnings per share come in at 11 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research. Revenue estimates are not available.

Results: Adjusted net income soared to 89.3 million Brazilian reais from 5.7 million a year ago. Revenue jumped 121.4% to 414.1 million Brazilian reais. As of Sept. 30, StoneCo had 234,400 thousand active clients, up 127% from a year ago. Payment volume surged 84% to 21.8 billion Brazilian reais.

"Our performance so far in the fourth quarter 2018 in terms of growth, operational leverage, profitability and take rate has been strong and on track," StoneCo said in a statement. "The Company's strategy of having the best customer experience, a disciplined execution and being very close to the clients has been paying off."

Warren Buffett Backs StoneCo
StoneCo stock has high-pedigree backing, with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) revealing that it owns 14.2 million shares of the Brazilian financial technology firm. This amounts to an 11.3% stake in the company. The position was taken when the firm went public Oct. 25.

Berkshire is not known for its financial or tech investments, however this may be changing. It also invested in Paytm, India's largest mobile-payments service, in August.

StoneCo touts itself as a leading provider of financial technology solutions in its native Brazil. Its products help merchants and partners conduct e-commerce in-store, online, and through mobile channels. It competes with fellow Brazilian stock PagSeguro (PAGS), which was recently listed among the IPO Leaders list and reports Thursday.

StoneCo is planning to use the proceeds from its stock market IPO for mergers, acquisitions and working capital. In addition, it is planning to offer banking services and start a loyalty program.