Walmart's Options Frenzy: What You Need to Know - Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT)

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on Walmart (NYSE:WMT).

And retail traders should know.

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

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with WMT, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 9 uncommon options trades for Walmart.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 33% bullish and 66%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 2 are puts, for a total amount of $180,709, and 7 are calls, for a total amount of $254,467.

Projected Price Targets

After evaluating the trading volumes and Open Interest, it's evident that the major market movers are focusing on a price band between $125.0 and $185.0 for Walmart, spanning the last three months.

Insights into Volume & Open Interest

In today's trading context, the average open interest for options of Walmart stands at 1844.67, with a total volume reaching 1,807.00. The accompanying chart delineates the progression of both call and put option volume and open interest for high-value trades in Walmart, situated within the strike price corridor from $125.0 to $185.0, throughout the last 30 days.

Walmart 30-Day Option Volume & Interest Snapshot

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol	PUT/CALL	Trade Type	Sentiment	Exp. Date	Strike Price	Total Trade Price	Open Interest	Volume
WMT	PUT	SWEEP	BEARISH	07/19/24	$170.00	$151.7K	16	72
WMT	CALL	SWEEP	BEARISH	01/17/25	$125.00	$48.4K	161	10
WMT	CALL	SWEEP	BEARISH	02/16/24	$170.00	$41.2K	7.4K	720
WMT	CALL	SWEEP	BEARISH	02/16/24	$172.50	$40.0K	2.8K	845
WMT	CALL	TRADE	BULLISH	02/16/24	$162.50	$38.6K	1.8K	60

About Walmart

Walmart serves as the preeminent retailer in the United States, with its strategy predicated on superior operating efficiency and offering the lowest priced goods to consumers to drive robust store traffic and product turnover. Walmart augmented its low-price business strategy by offering a convenient one-stop shopping destination with the opening of its first supercenter in 1988.Today, Walmart operates over 4,700 stores in the United States (5,300 including Sam's Club) and over 10,000 stores globally. Walmart generated over $420 billion in domestic namesake sales last year, with Sam's Club contributing another $84 billion to the firm's top line. Internationally, Walmart generated $100 billion in sales. The company serves around 240 million customers globally each week.

Following our analysis of the options activities associated with Walmart, we pivot to a closer look at the company's own performance.

Present Market Standing of Walmart

With a volume of 1,394,928, the price of WMT is up 0.12% at $168.52.
RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be overbought.
Next earnings are expected to be released in 18 days.

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 Walmart, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.

WMTWalmart Inc

$118.40-0.40%

Overview

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