Caterpillar Unusual Options Activity

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Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT).

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And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual, we don’t know. But when something this big happens with CAT, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what this whale just did?

Today, Benzinga‘s options scanner spotted 17 uncommon options trades for Caterpillar.

This isn’t normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 52% bullish and 47%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 10 are puts, for a total amount of $320,969, and 7 are calls, for a total amount of $306,288.

What’s The Price Target?

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $200.0 to $260.0 for Caterpillar over the last 3 months.

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Volume & Open Interest Development

Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options. This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Caterpillar’s options for a given strike price. Below, we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts, respectively, for all of Caterpillar’s whale trades within a strike price range from $200.0 to $260.0 in the last 30 days.

Caterpillar Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days






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Options Call Chart

Biggest Options Spotted:

 

Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume
CAT CALL SWEEP BULLISH 01/19/24 $260.00 $58.3K 678 103
CAT CALL TRADE BEARISH 05/19/23 $200.00 $53.5K 949 15
CAT CALL SWEEP NEUTRAL 01/20/23 $242.50 $51.9K 287 105
CAT CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/20/23 $200.00 $41.9K 3.6K 17
CAT PUT TRADE BULLISH 01/20/23 $225.00 $36.4K 3.0K 1.2K

Where Is Caterpillar Standing Right Now?

With a volume of 1,169,662, the price of CAT is up 0.95% at $241.16. RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought. Next earnings are expected to be released in 23 days.

What The Experts Say On Caterpillar:

Stifel has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Caterpillar, which currently sits at a price target of $271. Morgan Stanley has decided to maintain their Underweight rating on Caterpillar, which currently sits at a price target of $190.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Caterpillar, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.

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