Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) is in focus today, after the software giant revealed it will lay off 491 employees effective June 1, according to a notice filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The reduction comes amid increased spending on artificial intelligence to compete with players in the cloud space.
The stock is lower in response, trading at $146.68 and paring early-morning gains. ORCL snapped a five-day losing streak yesterday and wrapped up its first monthly gain since September, but finished the first quarter with a 24.5% deficit. The descending 60-day moving average has been pressuring shares slower since late October.
Calls still outpace puts on an overall basis, put pessimism has been more prevalent than usual. This is per the security's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.62 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) that sits higher than 85% of annual readings.
Plus, ORCL's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) comes in at 99 out of 100. In simpler terms, the shares have consistently realized higher volatility than the options have priced in over the past 12 months.
