AMD Stock Stumbling Into the Earnings Confessional

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is down 5.5% to trade at $472.69, heading for its lowest close in over a month. AMD traded as high as $512.82 today, but a price-target cut from Melius to $600 from $660 is weighing, as is the broader tech pullback. The pivot comes ahead of the chipmaker's third-quarter earnings report, due out after the market closes on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Ahead of the event, options traders are betting bullishly.

Per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks that saw the most options volume over the past two weeks, AMD saw more than 4.4 million calls and 3.8 million puts exchanged during this time frame. The January 2027 470-strike call is home to peak open interest, but puts are popular today amid zero-day expiration volume.

AMD has a rather mixed post-earnings history, finishing lower after seven of the last 12 reports, including a 7% selloff on Aug. 4. Overall, the stock averages a post-earnings loss of 1.8% in the last three years. For Wednesday's trading, the options market is pricing in a 9.2% move, regardless of direction, which is larger than the average post-earnings move of 8% after the last 12 reports. 

The shares have breached their 126-day moving average today, a trendline that stepped up as support last month. While AMD is up 122% year to date still, the equity is 28% off its Oct. 6 record high of $658.52.