Volume Spike Investor » MSFT

Interest in Nuance Resurfaces (NUAN, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, ADBE)

247admin — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:21:49 +0000

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) has just seen a massive jump on rumors that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in talks “of an unknown nature” as per reports from the blog TechCrunch. MarketWatch noted this is likely a licensing deal for its speech recognition software.

For whatever this is worth, we have considered that Nuance could ultimately be acquired. The problem in thinking that Apple would acquire is that this Dragon NaturallySpeaking software is used on so many Windows machines.

Speech-to-text and text-to-speech are likely to only grow. Our take is that ultimately Nuance will be acquired. The three acquirers we had considered as possible acquirers came to a tie between Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) followed in a distant third place by Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE). The problem is that Nuance is getting pricey on a nominal dollar basis.

After a 10% pop to $22.00 and with just over 4 million shares traded already this morning, the market cap is now $6.6 billion. The new 52-week range just went higher today and that is $14.45 to $22.93. The average daily volume is about 2.35 million shares per day.

JON C. OGG

(10:17 AM EST)

Weekend Review: Unusual Options Trading Review (AMR, CSTR, SLV, SFI, MSFT, SPPI)

247admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:06:16 +0000

It is Saturday and we decided to go dig through the Friday options trading looking for unusual trading in the crazy world of stock options. Some of these are probably just par for the course but two stood out as really unusual. We outlined the options trading and gave color in the following: AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV), iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE: SFI), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPPI). More details on each below…

AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, saw large trading in the LEAPS… The JAN13 $3.00 PUTS saw some 8,697 options contracts trade hands. Keep in mind that the open interest is 44,248 contracts. The stock saw a 2% gain but the closing price was $5.87.

Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) saw its stock close up 5% at $53.98 after earnings allowed shares to run, but the MAY11 CALL and PUT volume much higher. Here is the MAY standout strike prices:
CALL$ Vol. OpInt.
50.00 5,865 11,178
52.50 995 7,161
55.00 9,614 14,394
57.50 2,926 1,788
60.00 2,467 1,600
PUTS$ Vol. OpInt.
45.00 2,205 6,803
47.50 7,536 7,740

iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) is getting out of hand. Stock volumes are now trading more than the whole float and the MAY11 CALLS traded nearly 150,000 CALLS on Friday versus about 100,000 MAY11 PUTS… Unfortunately, as long as silver remains the new crack for speculators then this options activity is just likely to stay high.

iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE: SFI) is one we never recall with highly unusual options trading. This one saw 28,676 contracts trade in the JAN12 $10.00 CALLS and the prior open interest was only 19,501 contracts. This was on the heels of it reporting its first real profit in three years. Shares closed up 2.1% at $9.62 on 3.5 million shares versus a 52-week range of $2.70 to $10.48 and against average daily volume of almost 1.5 million shares.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is no longer known for its great price volatility. Options traders were braced for a move of just under $1.00 in either direction and shares closed down $0.79 at $25.92 on Friday on more than 319 million shares traded. We saw more than 18,000 contracts of the MAY11 $25.00 CALLS trade hands, almost 67,000 of the MAY11 $26.00 CALLS trade hands, and more than 36,000 of the MAY11 $27.00 CALLS trade hands. With more than 10,000 contracts traded in other strike prices, there were more than 130,000 CALLS traded. That is about 3:2 in call call volume over total put volume. Despite a drop and despite caution and despite a value trap, there are still those who want to be bullish.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPPI) saw a drop of 13% to $9.00 on more than 7.4 million shares, but this was ahead of the FDA decision. The headlines show that FUSILEV won FDA approval for colorectal cancer. Here were the options trades for MAY11 alone, and look for many more on Monday:
CALL$ Vol. OpInt.
9.00   1,514 6,544
10.00   3,748 5,681
11.00 6,386 7,519
12.00 1,465 2,929
13.00   1,190 1,196
PUTS$ Vol. OpInt.
6.00 1,182 3,650
7.00   3,045 6,181
8.00 3,599 6,291
9.00 1,315 3,914
10.00 1,068 1,900

Option Expiration’s Largest Open Interest Contracts (GE, MSFT, PFE, INTC, YHOO, CSCO, WFC, SPY, QQQQ, FXI, XLK, XHB)

247admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:40:04 +0000

Today marks the January 2011 options expiration date. There are many active options expiring, and the reason these are so large is because many are LEAPS rather than just normal monthly options. The old rule of thumb is that options tend to drift toward their closest and most active options contract strike prices. We identified the largest contracts with the highest open interest. These are all in major players and in major ETFs after that.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) JAN11 $20 Call has 234,732 contracts; JAN11 $19 Call has 209,801 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $19.46.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) JAN11 $30 Call 210,520 contracts; MSFT $27.50 Call 162,676 contracts…. Share price at 11:30 $28.10.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) JAN11 $17.50 Call… 186,517 contracts; JAN11 $20 Call… 192,992 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $18.25.

Intel Corporation JAN11 $22.50 Call has 186,623 contracts; JAN11 $21.00 Call has 164,583 contracts… Share price at 11:30 $20.90.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) JAN11 $17.50 Call has 161,010 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $16.01.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) JAN11 $19 Put has 142,583 contracts and the $20 Put has 136.060 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $20.78.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) JAN11 $30 Call… 104,257 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $32.49 so look at the $32.50: Call has 67,906 contracts and Put has 42,812 contracts.

In ETFs:

SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) JAN11 $125 Put has 358,490 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $128.74.

PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ: QQQQ) JAN11 $54 Put has 217,276 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $56.04.

iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (NYSE: FXI) JAN11 $40 Call has 138,131 contracts and teh $40 Put has 136,096 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $43.45, so other strike prices matter more.

Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLK) JAN11 $26 Call… 132,322 contracts; Share price at 11:30 $25.86.

JON C. OGG

Dual Flop in Seattle Earnings Reactions (MSFT, AMZN)

247admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:23:41 +0000

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) are both experiencing a “Sell The News” trading this morning after earnings.

Microsoft beat earnings at $0.45 EPS on $14.5 billion in sales versus $0.42 on $14.48 billion expected from Thomson Reuters. The closely watched online operations revenue rose to $566 million from $507 million last year, but the loss in the division moved from $411 million last year to loss of $713 million.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) also beat earnings expectations at $0.66 EPS on $7.14 billion in revenue versus Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.60 EPS and $6.86 billion. Amazon.com sees revenue in the current quarter of $6.1 to $6.7 billion versus $6.4 billion expected. Amazon is still a very high multiple on forward earnings. Shares hit an all-time high yesterday.

UPDATE 9:28 AM EST: MSFT is down only 0.8% at $31.13 on 5.8 million shares and AMZN is is down 3.8% at $144.60 on 1.1 million shares as of 9:28 AM EST.

Microsoft is trading down by 1.7% at $30.86 on over 2 million shares as of 8:18 AM EST.

Amazon.com is trading down 3.9% at $144.25 on about 220,000 shares as of 8:18 AM EST. Shares hit an all-time high of $151.09 yesterday.

JON OGG

Microsoft Soaring to 52-Week Highs (MSFT)

247admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:38:15 +0000

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is soaring to new 52-0week highs. The software giant posted $0.40 EPS on $12.92 billion. These were down from $0.48 EPS and $15.06 billion a year ago but were way above the Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.32 EPS and $12.32 billion in revenues. At 8:37 AM EST we have shares trading up a sharp 8% at $28.81 on 5.9 million shares of stock. Average volume is $over 50 million shares and the prior 52-week trading high was listed as $26.75. Shares closed at $26.59 yesterday and yesterday’s intra-day high came in at $26.72 after the $26.75 high had been hit just on Wednesday.

UPDATE AT 9:01 AM EST: Shares are up 9.95% at $29.24 and we have already hit 15 million shares in pre-market trading.

JON OGG

Microsoft Sees Elevated Options Trading (MSFT)

247admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:10:26 +0000

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has seen a low volume day in the shares of its common stock. But that is not the case in its call options. Trading volume has really picked up, with some call option contracts trading more than their entire open interest. You can imagine why… earnings bets ahead of Yahoo! tonight and ahead of Microsoft on Friday morning. Usually you see open interest passed in thinly traded contracts any time an institution comes in on smaller companies, but you rarely see more contracts trade in a single day compared to the open interest of the near contracts.

NOVEMBER 2009 CALLS BY STRIKE:
CALL$   Volume   OpInt
22.00   11,153   10,817
23.00   25,324   25,908
24.00   1,058   15,252
25.00   10,802   18,070
26.00   6,629   43,203
27.00   4,442   27,663

JANUARY 2010 CALLS BY STRIKE:
CALL$   Volume   OpInt
25.00   36,953   221,311
26.00   2,698   82,664
27.50   1,328   95,192
29.00   1,479   14,078
30.00   2,441   138,660
32.50   2,754   68,241

Jon C. Ogg
October 20, 2009

Intel Drives Friends and Rivals (INTC, DELL, MSFT, AMD, NVDA, MU, RMBS)

247admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:40:24 +0000

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) guidance is driving the tech sector, despite Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) already giving a lift to the sector…..Right before the open at 9:28 AM EST Intel stock is up 4.5% at $20.35 on about 8 million shares. Look at peers and competitors:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up over 5% at $4.30 on well over 1 million shares right before the open…
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was up 2.2% at $25.22 on only about 600,000 shares.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was up 2.4% at $14.35 on 52-week highs.
Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) is up 2% at $7.35 on volume, also on 52-week highs.
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) is up 1% at $19.40 on light volume, but keep an eye on $19.94 as that is the 52-week high level.

JON C. OGG

Exponential Volume Alert: VirnetX (VHC, MSFT)

247admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:35:34 +0000

VirnetX Holding Corporation (NYSE Amex: VHC) has never been covered by VSInvestor. The company announced that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, issued its patent claim construction, or “Markman” Order, in the ongoing patent infringement action between VirnetX Inc. and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) . It said, “In the recently issued Markman Order, the Court adopted interpretations that VirnetX believes are favorable to VirnetX on many of the claim terms that were in dispute in the litigation.” Shares are not just up big. They were halted and are up massively. We are seeing a 190% gain to $4.34 on over 2.4 million shares as of 2:32 PM EST. Average volume is only about 37,000 or 38,000 shares. This company just got itself on the map on major exponential volume surges… -JON OGG

MAJOR PREMARKET ALERT: Yahoo (YHOO, MSFT, GOOG)

247admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:59:19 +0000

Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) shares are down more than 7 percent to $15.90 in early premarket trading of more than 100,000 shares; it was among the most active after-hours stocks, as well. The company confirmed a 10-year search-engine agreement with rival Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to jointly attack Google Inc’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) 65 percent search market share. The move may dampen some lingering expectations that Microsoft may still buy Yahoo. Microsoft technology will now power Yahoo search, and Yahoo will become the relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. — Mike Tarsala

PREMARKET ALERT: Microsoft (MSFT)

247admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:01:44 +0000

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares fell more than 6 percent to $23.80 after hours, on very high active-hours volume of more than 14 million shares. The software maker reported in-line earnings 36 cents a share, but lower-than-expected revenue that fell 17.3% to $13.1 billion from year-ago results. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $14.4 billion. The company noted global weakness in PC and server markets, and said it sees tough comparable numbers for the rest of its calendar year. It sees the PC hardware market declining 5 to 7% from last year, with sales of traditional PCs down 16 to 17 percent. — Mike Tarsala