Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST).
And retail traders should know.
We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.
Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual, we don't know. But when something this big happens with COST, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.
So how do we know what this whale just did?
Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 18 uncommon options trades for Costco Wholesale.
This isn't normal.
The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 38% bullish and 61%, bearish.
Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 7 are puts, for a total amount of $777,730, and 11 are calls, for a total amount of $1,090,012.
What's The Price Target?
Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $470.0 to $640.0 for Costco Wholesale over the last 3 months.
Volume & Open Interest Development
In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Costco Wholesale options trades today is 271.55 with a total volume of 1,392.00.
In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Costco Wholesale's big money trades within a strike price range of $470.0 to $640.0 over the last 30 days.
Costco Wholesale Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days
Biggest Options Spotted:
| Symbol | PUT/CALL | Trade Type | Sentiment | Exp. Date | Strike Price | Total Trade Price | Open Interest | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COST | PUT | SWEEP | NEUTRAL | 01/19/24 | $560.00 | $502.6K | 15 | 70 |
| COST | CALL | TRADE | BEARISH | 01/19/24 | $560.00 | $443.5K | 150 | 119 |
| COST | CALL | TRADE | BEARISH | 01/19/24 | $560.00 | $230.6K | 150 | 25 |
| COST | CALL | TRADE | BULLISH | 04/14/22 | $565.00 | $66.9K | 918 | 107 |
| COST | CALL | SWEEP | BULLISH | 04/14/22 | $565.00 | $66.7K | 918 | 154 |
Where Is Costco Wholesale Standing Right Now?
- With a volume of 489,921, the price of COST is down -0.02% at $561.25.
- RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be overbought.
- Next earnings are expected to be released in 66 days.
What The Experts Say On Costco Wholesale:
- Telsey Advisory Group has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Costco Wholesale, which currently sits at a price target of $615.
- BMO Capital has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Costco Wholesale, which currently sits at a price target of $580.
- Deutsche Bank has decided to maintain their Hold rating on Costco Wholesale, which currently sits at a price target of $491.
Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.
