Monday's ‘Herd' on the Street: Brocade Communications, Hewlett-Packard, Merck
By Beth Gaston (bgaston@sir-inc.com)
10/28/2002 1:50 PM ET
Hewlett-Packard
As the #28 firm in the Fortune 500, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: sentiment, chart, options) is now vying with IBM (IBM: sentiment, chart, options) for the ruling title within the PC manufacturing kingdom. Today, HPQ enjoyed a boost of nearly six percent after Lehman Brothers Holdings upped its rating on the shares from an "equal-weight" to an "overweight" designation. The analysts in question said that a pick-up in U.S. corporate spending could benefit the computer sector. Options players have rushed to HPQ pits as a result, making the near-the-money HPQ November 15 put among the most-active put positions trading on the PHLX. More than 12,000 contracts have changed hands at this front-month strike, which was previously home to less than 5,000 contracts. Around 12:20 p.m. ET, a block of 9,400 contracts traded near the bid price, accounting for the lion's share of today's volume. Technically speaking, HPQ has displayed a healthy performance over the past four weeks, pulling above and away from its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. Today's boost ushered the shares beyond their August peak in the 15 region. |
