Carnival's Options: A Look at What the Big Money is Thinking

High-rolling investors have positioned themselves bearish on Carnival CCL, and it's important for retail traders to take note. \This activity came to our attention today through Benzinga's tracking of publicly available options data. The identities of these investors are uncertain, but such a significant move in CCL often signals that someone has privileged information.

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 9 options trades for Carnival. This is not a typical pattern.

The sentiment among these major traders is split, with 44% bullish and 55% bearish. Among all the options we identified, there was one put, amounting to $83,673, and 8 calls, totaling $1,205,719.

Projected Price Targets

Analyzing the Volume and Open Interest in these contracts, it seems that the big players have been eyeing a price window from $12.0 to $30.0 for Carnival during the past quarter.

Volume & Open Interest Trends

Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock.

This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Carnival's options for a given strike price.

Below, we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts, respectively, for all of Carnival's whale activity within a strike price range from $12.0 to $30.0 in the last 30 days.

Carnival Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Largest Options Trades Observed:

About Carnival

Carnival is the largest global cruise company, with 92 ships in service at the end of fiscal 2023. Its portfolio of brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in the United Kingdom; Aida in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; and P&O Cruises in Australia. Carnival also owns Holland America Princess Alaska Tours in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Carnival's brands attracted nearly 13 million guests in 2019, prior to COVID-19, a level it has reached again in 2023.

In light of the recent options history for Carnival, it's now appropriate to focus on the company itself. We aim to explore its current performance.

Present Market Standing of Carnival

• With a trading volume of 16,154,178, the price of CCL is up by 1.36%, reaching $17.09.
• Current RSI values indicate that the stock is may be approaching oversold.
• Next earnings report is scheduled for 67 days from now.

Expert Opinions on Carnival

5 market experts have recently issued ratings for this stock, with a consensus target price of $22.2.

• An analyst from Macquarie persists with their Outperform rating on Carnival, maintaining a target price of $22.
• Showing optimism, an analyst from Wells Fargo upgrades its rating to Overweight with a revised price target of $22.
• An analyst from Deutsche Bank persists with their Hold rating on Carnival, maintaining a target price of $18.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from Stifel keeps a Buy rating on Carnival with a target price of $25.
• Maintaining their stance, an analyst from Barclays continues to hold a Overweight rating for Carnival, targeting a price of $24.

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