Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Block (NYSE:SQ).
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 SQ, 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 41 uncommon options trades for Block.
This isn't normal.
The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 60% bullish and 39%, bearish.
Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 18 are puts, for a total amount of $3,947,764, and 23 are calls, for a total amount of $1,965,604.
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 $95.0 to $350.0 for Block over the last 3 months.
Volume & Open Interest Development
In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Block options trades today is 2446.34 with a total volume of 9,326.00.
In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Block's big money trades within a strike price range of $95.0 to $350.0 over the last 30 days.
Block Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days
Biggest Options Spotted:
| Symbol | PUT/CALL | Trade Type | Sentiment | Exp. Date | Strike Price | Total Trade Price | Open Interest | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQ | PUT | TRADE | BULLISH | 01/19/24 | $350.00 | $1.7M | 110 | 78 |
| SQ | PUT | SWEEP | BEARISH | 05/20/22 | $150.00 | $849.7K | 702 | 290 |
| SQ | CALL | TRADE | BEARISH | 05/20/22 | $125.00 | $787.5K | 2.6K | 726 |
| SQ | PUT | SWEEP | NEUTRAL | 06/17/22 | $130.00 | $303.9K | 3.0K | 167 |
| SQ | CALL | TRADE | BULLISH | 06/17/22 | $95.00 | $175.7K | 3.4K | 100 |
Where Is Block Standing Right Now?
- With a volume of 7,475,283, the price of SQ is up 5.55% at $126.02.
- RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
- Next earnings are expected to be released in 16 days.
What The Experts Say On Block:
- Stephens & Co. downgraded its action to Equal-Weight with a price target of $170
- Goldman Sachs downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $173
- Mizuho has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Block, which currently sits at a price target of $190.
- Barclays has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Block, which currently sits at a price target of $182.
- Morgan Stanley downgraded its action to Equal-Weight with a price target of $146
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.
