Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) stock is soaring today, after the AI heavyweight's fiscal first-quarter results blew past estimates. The company also issued strong guidance amid high memory chip demand, with business chief Sumit Sadana stating "we are more than sold out."
MU was last seen up 11.4% at $251.27, earlier trading as high as $263.65 -- just below its recent Dec. 10 record high of $264.75. Should these gains hold, MU is headed for its largest daily percentage gain since an 18.8% pop in April. Year to date, the equity is up 198.4%.
Over in the options pits, Micron stock has seen 260,000 calls and 213,000 puts exchanged so far, five times the amount typically seen at this point. The December 250 put is the most active contract, followed by the December 260 call, with new positions opening at both.
Though calls have been outweighing puts on an absolute basis, puts have been picked up at a much faster-than-usual rate of late. MU's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.71 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 99% of readings from the past year.
It's also worth noting that the security tends to outperform options traders' volatility expectations, per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 87 out of 100.
