Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE:ALK) stock is up 1.8% to trade at $65.04, after UBS upgraded the Washington-based airliner to "buy" from "neutral" with a price-target hike to $90 from $56, citing the company's initiatives moving forward. J.P. Morgan Securities also chimed in with a price-target hike to $96 from $73.
These bull notes come a couple days after Alaska Air announced that Diana Birkett Rakow, Senior V.P. of public affairs and sustainability at Alaska Airlines, will become CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, which merged with Alaska Air one year ago. The airline will also begin nonstop service between Seattle and Seoul starting today.
ALK is trading at its highest levels since March and breaking into positive territory for 2025. Support from the 40-day moving average propped up the shares from mid-July to mid-August, while the 20-day moving average moved in a support more recently as the shares climb.
Call traders have been targeting the stock at full force, with 53.73 calls exchanged for every put in the last two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio ranks higher than 95% of readings over the past year.
Options are reasonably priced at the moment, too. ALK's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 46% ranks in the low 17th percentile of its annual range, meaning options traders are pricing in low volatility expectations. It's also worth mentioning that the equity has tended to outperform volatility expectations over the past year, as suggested by its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 94 out of 100.
