Looking At Merck & Co's Recent Unusual Options Activity

A whale with a lot of money to spend has taken a noticeably bearish stance on Merck & Co.

Looking at options history for Merck & Co MRK we detected 10 strange trades.

If we consider the specifics of each trade, it is accurate to state that 40% of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 60% with bearish.

From the overall spotted trades, 2 are puts, for a total amount of $61,425 and 8, calls, for a total amount of $323,870.

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 $80.0 to $120.0 for Merck & Co over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Merck & Co options trades today is 1728.5 with a total volume of 622.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Merck & Co's big money trades within a strike price range of $80.0 to $120.0 over the last 30 days.

Merck & Co Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Options Call Chart

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume
MRK CALL TRADE BEARISH 07/21/23 $100.00 $53.7K 666 111
MRK CALL SWEEP BULLISH 05/19/23 $80.00 $48.7K 233 12
MRK CALL SWEEP NEUTRAL 05/19/23 $80.00 $48.4K 233 25
MRK CALL SWEEP BULLISH 05/19/23 $80.00 $44.9K 233 12
MRK CALL TRADE BULLISH 05/19/23 $80.00 $44.4K 233 114

Where Is Merck & Co Standing Right Now?

  • With a volume of 2,219,751, the price of MRK is down -0.54% at $116.92.
  • RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought.
  • Next earnings are expected to be released in 81 days.

What The Experts Say On Merck & Co:

  • Barclays has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Merck & Co, which currently sits at a price target of $130.
  • Citigroup upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $130
  • Atlantic Equities has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Merck & Co, which currently sits at a price target of $129.

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 Merck & Co, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Date of Trade
ticker
Put/Call
Strike Price
DTE
Sentiment
Posted In: OptionsMarketsBZI-UOA
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!