Starbucks Whale Trades Spotted

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Starbucks SBUX.

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 SBUX, 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 20 uncommon options trades for Starbucks.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 40% bullish and 60%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 9 are puts, for a total amount of $322,035, and 11 are calls, for a total amount of $2,706,935.

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 $77.5 to $145.0 for Starbucks over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Starbucks options trades today is 3981.22 with a total volume of 24,863.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Starbucks's big money trades within a strike price range of $77.5 to $145.0 over the last 30 days.

Starbucks Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Where Is Starbucks Standing Right Now?

• With a volume of 14,297,461, the price of SBUX is up 6.08% at $93.18.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 43 days.

What The Experts Say On Starbucks:

• Citigroup has decided to maintain their Neutral rating on Starbucks, which currently sits at a price target of $94.
• Bernstein downgraded its action to Market Perform with a price target of $94
• JP Morgan has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Starbucks, which currently sits at a price target of $100.
• Baird has decided to maintain their Neutral rating on Starbucks, which currently sits at a price target of $94.
• Barclays has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Starbucks, which currently sits at a price target of $100.

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 Starbucks, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.