Alphabet Unusual Options Activity For August 29

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bullish stance on Alphabet GOOGL.

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with GOOGL, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 22 uncommon options trades for Alphabet.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 45% bullish and 40%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 6 are puts, for a total amount of $331,681, and 16 are calls, for a total amount of $1,061,229.

Predicted Price Range

After evaluating the trading volumes and Open Interest, it's evident that the major market movers are focusing on a price band between $70.0 and $180.0 for Alphabet, spanning the last three months.

Insights into Volume & Open Interest

In today's trading context, the average open interest for options of Alphabet stands at 5649.81, with a total volume reaching 2,795.00. The accompanying chart delineates the progression of both call and put option volume and open interest for high-value trades in Alphabet, situated within the strike price corridor from $70.0 to $180.0, throughout the last 30 days.

Alphabet Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Noteworthy Options Activity:

About Alphabet

Alphabet is a holding company that wholly owns internet giant Google. The California-based company derives slightly less than 90% of its revenue from Google services, the vast majority of which is advertising sales. Alongside online ads, Google services houses sales stemming from Google's subscription services (YouTube TV, YouTube Music among others), platforms (sales and in-app purchases on Play Store), and devices (Chromebooks, Pixel smartphones, and smart home products such as Chromecast). Google's cloud computing platform, or GCP, accounts for roughly 10% of Alphabet's revenue with the firm's investments in up-and-coming technologies such as self-driving cars (Waymo), health (Verily), and internet access (Google Fiber) making up the rest.

After a thorough review of the options trading surrounding Alphabet, we move to examine the company in more detail. This includes an assessment of its current market status and performance.

Alphabet's Current Market Status

• With a volume of 3,025,131, the price of GOOGL is up 1.52% at $165.32.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 54 days.

What The Experts Say On Alphabet

Over the past month, 5 industry analysts have shared their insights on this stock, proposing an average target price of $212.4.

• Reflecting concerns, an analyst from Needham lowers its rating to Buy with a new price target of $210.
• Reflecting concerns, an analyst from Needham lowers its rating to Buy with a new price target of $210.
• An analyst from Needham downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $210.
• An analyst from Needham downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $210.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from BMO Capital keeps a Outperform rating on Alphabet with a target price of $222.

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.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Alphabet, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.