J.P. Morgan quant's 20 highest beta stocks in the S&P 500

Beta measures stock price volatility and a high-beta stock (with a beta above 1.0) tends to more risky with greater potential reward. Investors are now flocking to high-beta names after previously crowding into momentum stocks (due to megacap and AI fear of missing out) in January and low volatility in April (on worries about tariffs, a recession and AI overspending).

 

1. Super Micro Computer (SMCI), beta score 3.37
2. Coinbase Global (COIN), 2.82
3. Palantir Technologies (PLTR), 2.41
4. Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR), 2.39
5. Broadcom (AVGO), 2.35
6. Nvidia (NVDA), 2.32
7. Micron Technology (MU), 2.30
8. Western Digital (WDC), 2.19
9. Arista Networks (ANET), 2.17
10. AMD (AMD), 2.13
11. Dell (DELL), 2.08
12. Vistra (VST), 2.00
13. Lam Research (LRCX), 1.98
14. Microchip Technology (MCHP), 1.92
15. Crowdstrike (CRWD), 1.91
16. KKR (KKR), 1.90
17. Teradyne (TER), 1.88
18. KLA (KLAC), 1.87
19. Carnival (CCL), 1.87
20. Tesla (TSLA), 1.86

• by vol https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=211&ta=0&o=-volume&t=AMD,ANET,AVGO,CCL,COIN,CRWD,DELL,KKR,KLAC,LRCX,MCHP,MPWR,MU,NVDA,PLTR,SMCI,TER,TSLA,VST,WDC

     

     

     

 

                   

Unusual Options Activity Fri 8/11/23

The following options are exhibiting notable trading, potentially indicating changing sentiment toward the underlying stocks, and/or potentially representing positioning for increased volatility.

Bullish Call Activity:

• MARA Aug 15 calls (volume: 1770, open int: 6810, implied vol: ~188%, prev day implied vol: 114%). Co is expected to report earnings mid-November.
• CLSK Aug 7.5 calls are seeing interest with the underlying stock up 11% (volume: 4870, open int: 2410, implied vol: ~133%, prev day implied vol: 118%). Co is scheduled to present at a HC Wainwright conference on September 11. Co is expected to report earnings mid-November.
• LRCX Aug 665 calls are seeing interest with the underlying stock down 4% (volume: 1950, open int: 0, implied vol: ~50%, prev day implied vol: 40%). Co is expected to report earnings mid-October.
  

Bearish Put Activity:

• RBLX Aug 30 puts (volume: 1560, open int: 3360, implied vol: ~93%, prev day implied vol: 57%). Co is expected to report earnings early November.
• CRWD Aug 150 puts (volume: 2170, open int: 490, implied vol: ~52%, prev day implied vol: 44%). 1K traded in a single transaction. Co is confirmed to report earnings August 30 after the close.
  

Sentiment: The CBOE Put/Call ratio is currently: 1.07, VIX: (15.64, -0.21, -1.3%).
August 18 is options expiration -- the last day to trade August equity options.

Unusual Options Activity Wed 8/2/23

The following options are exhibiting notable trading, potentially indicating changing sentiment toward the underlying stocks, and/or potentially representing positioning for increased volatility.

Bullish Call Activity:

• CRWD Aug 160 calls are seeing interest with the underlying down 7% (volume: 2410, open int: 690, implied vol: ~61%, prev day implied vol: 47%). Co is expected to report earnings late August.
  
• JNJ Aug 172.5 calls (volume: 23.2K, open int: 1090, implied vol: ~21%, prev day implied vol: 18%). Health Canada authorizes TECVAYLI a First-in-class bispecific antibody for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Co is scheduled to present at a conference on August 15. Co is expected to report earnings mid-October.
  

Bearish Put Activity:

• SQ Aug 72 puts are seeing interest with the underlying stock down 5% ahead of earnings tomorrow after the close (volume: 1920, open int: 260, implied vol: ~132%, prev day implied vol: 105%). 2K traded in a single transaction.
• GILD Aug 73 puts are seeing interest with the ahead of earnings tomorrow after the close  (volume: 2070, open int: 40, implied vol: ~54%, prev day implied vol: 47%).
  

Sentiment: The CBOE Put/Call ratio is currently: 0.84, VIX: (16.09, +2.16, +15.5%).
August 18 is options expiration -- the last day to trade August equity options.

==CrowdStrike (CRWD) reported earnings on Tue 29 Nov 22 (a/h)

 ** before earnings **

** charts after earnings **

CrowdStrike beats by $0.08, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS above consensus, revs below consensus

• Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.40 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.08 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of $0.32; revenues rose 52.8% year/year to $580.88 mln vs the $575.06 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Added 1,460 net new subscription customers in the quarter for a total of 21,146 subscription customers as of October 31, 2022, representing 44% growth year-over-year.
  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) increased 54% year-over-year and grew to $2.34 billion as of October 31, 2022, of which $198.1 million was net new ARR added in the quarter.
• Co added, "[T]otal net new ARR was below our expectations as increased macroeconomic headwinds elongated sales cycles with smaller customers and caused some larger customers to pursue multi-phase subscription start dates, which delays ARR recognition until future quarters."
• Co issues mixed guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.42-0.45, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.34 S&P Capital IQ Consensus; sees Q4 revs of $619.1-628.2 mln vs. $634.19 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.

Earnings this week : Nov 28 - Dec 2, 22 (wk 48)

Monday (Nov 28)

• Afternoon: ARWR AZEK

Tuesday (Nov 29)

• Morning: BNS BZUN BILI CRNC HIBB SJR
• Afternoon:  CMP CRWD HPE INTU NTAP WDAY

Wednesday (Nov 30)

• Morning:  DCI FRO HRL BEKE LESL WOOF RY SFL TITN
• Afternoon:  BOX CRDO ESTC FIVE GIII LZB NCNO NTNX OKTA PSTG PVH CRM SMTC SNOW SPLK SNPS VSCO YEXT

Thursday (Dec 1)

• Morning: BMO BIG CM DBI DG KR PDCO SCWX TD
• Afternoon:  AMBA AOUT ASAN CHPT IOT  MRVL PD SMAR PATH ULTA VEEV ZS ZUMZ

Friday (Dec 2)  

• Morning:  CBRL GCO

CRWD : initiated with a Sell at Citigroup

The stock traded at nearly 24x forward sales with market cap over $13 bln coming into today.

CrowdStrike stock went public in mid-June, after the company priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $34 per share. The equity subsequently rallied as high as $101.88 in late August, before embarking on a steep pullback. Specifically, CRWD is off more than 40% since the aforementioned peak, and touched a record low of $51.61 on Sept. 30.

CrowdStrike (CRWD) reported earnings on Thur 5 Sept 19 (a/h)

** charts before earnings **

** charts after earnings **

CrowdStrike beats by $0.05, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; raises FY20 EPS and rev above consensus

Reports Q2 (Jul) loss of $0.18 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.23); revenues rose 94.1% year/year to $108.1 mln vs the $103.79 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.  ARR of $423.8 million, grew 104% year-over-year

Co issues upside guidance for Q3, sees EPS of ($0.12-0.11), excluding non-recurring items, vs. ($0.14) S&P Capital IQ Consensus; sees Q3 revs of $117-119.5 mln vs. $110.98 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.

Co issues upside guidance for FY20, sees EPS of ($0.65-0.62), excluding non-recurring items, from ($0.72-0.70) vs. ($0.71) S&P Capital IQ Consensus; raises FY20 revs to $445.4-451.8 mln frin $430-436 mln vs. $435.04 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.

"We delivered a strong second quarter with rapid subscription revenue growth and record net new ARR generated in the quarter," said George Kurtz, CrowdStrike's co-founder and chief executive officer. "Customer growth accelerated as an increasing number of organizations recognize the power of CrowdStrike's cloud-native Falcon platform to effectively stop breaches and simplify their security stack with our single-agent architecture. We secured a record number of net new subscription customers in the quarter. In addition, as of July 31, 2019, 50% of our subscription customers had adopted four or more cloud modules, underscoring the continued success of our platform strategy."