The bulls seem to be riding with Uber.
The ride-sharing giant’s first-ever earnings report as a public company, set to be released after Thursday’s closing bell, has some options traders betting there’s nowhere for its stock to go but up.
In one such trade, according to options guru Mike Khouw, somebody bought 2,500 calls for $43.50 that expire on June 7.
“That’s somebody making a bullish bet that Uber’s going to rally by at least 10% by the end of next week, and that would obviously be targeting the post-IPO highs … of about $45,” Khouw, who is co-founder and chief strategist at Optimize Advisors, said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Options Action.” “It hasn’t touched those levels since.”
That move would run directly counter to competitor Lyft’s post-earnings move, Khouw noted. That stock fell more than 10% after Lyft’s first-ever public report, with the losses growing to 16% by the end of that week.
Moreover, on an enterprise value-to-EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) basis, Uber is currently cheaper than Lyft, trading at 5.9 times EV to EBITDA versus Lyft’s 6 times, Khouw said.
“It is possible that some of the weakness that we’ve seen in these ride-sharing companies is already baked into the cake, and that might be why we’re seeing some of these bullish bets now.”
Uber’s stock was choppy in Thursday trading, down less than 1% ahead in early afternoon trading. Lyft shares were down about 3.2%.
