Palantir Options Traders Bet On Bullish Breakaway

Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR, which has landed a slew of partnerships with various departments of the U.S. government, announced Tuesday that it was awarded a one-year contract renewal with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention valued at $7.4 million.

The CDC runs its disease surveillance solution for the Data Collation and Integration for Public Health Event Response program powered by Palantir’s Foundry platform to collect and integrate data to help prevent disease outbreaks and respond to public health emergencies.

Following the news, Palantir’s stock shot up and ticked an upper resistance level at $25.30, but failed to break over the level.

Since then, the stock has been consolidating underneath the level, supported by the eight-day exponential moving average, and on Thursday was in the process of printing a bullish hammer candlestick.

A number of options traders believe Palantir is finally about to make a bullish break that could see the stock head toward its overhead gap near the $31 level and purchased $576,204 in call contracts.

See Also: How to Buy Palantir Technologies Stock Right Now

Why It’s Important: When a sweep order occurs, it indicates the trader wanted to get into a position quickly and is anticipating an imminent large move in stock price. A sweeper pays market price for the call option instead of placing a bid, which sweeps the order book of multiple exchanges to fill the order immediately.

These types of call option orders are usually made by institutions, and retail investors can find watching for sweepers useful because it indicates “smart money” has entered into a position.

The Palantir Option Trades: Below is a look at the notable options alerts, courtesy of Benzinga Pro:

At 9:35 a.m., Thursday a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 350 Palantir options with a strike price of $24 expiring on July 16. The trade represented a $61,600 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.76 per option contract.

At 10:01 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 200 Palantir options with a strike price of $22 expiring on Sept. 17. The trade represented a $76,000 bullish bet for which the trader paid $3.80 per option contract.

At 10:19 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 350 Palantir options with a strike price of $25 expiring on Sept. 17. The trade represented a $85,050 bullish bet for which the trader paid $2.43 per option contract.

At 10:20 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 792 Palantir options with a strike price of $35 expiring on Nov. 19. The trade represented a $91,080 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.15 per option contract.

At 10:28 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 206 Palantir options with a strike price of $25 expiring on Sept. 17. The trade represented a $49,028 bullish bet for which the trader paid $2.38 per option contract.

At 10:52 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 671 Palantir options with a strike price of $26 expiring on July 9. The trade represented a $34,221 bullish bet for which the trader paid 51 cents per option contract.

At 10:58 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 334 Palantir options with a strike price of $27 expiring on Sept. 17. The trade represented a $53,440 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.60 per option contract.

At 11:45 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 502 Palantir options with a strike price of $26 expiring on Sept. 17. The trade represented a $96,886 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.93 per option contract.

At 1:02 p.m., a trader executed a call sweep, above the ask, of 247 Palantir options with a strike price of $25 expiring on July 16. The trade represented a $28,899 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.17 per option contract.

PLTR Price Action: Palantir was trading down slightly at $24.17 at last check Thursday. 

Photo courtesy of Palantir.