Looking At Caterpillar's Recent Unusual Options Activity

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Caterpillar CAT.

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.

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 12 options trades for Caterpillar.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 41% bullish and 58%, bearish.

Out of all of the options we uncovered, 11 are puts, for a total amount of $520,754, and there was 1 call, for a total amount of $29,250.

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 $220.0 to $230.0 for Caterpillar over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock.

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 activity within a strike price range from $220.0 to $230.0 in the last 30 days.

Caterpillar Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Options Call Chart

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume
CAT PUT SWEEP BEARISH 06/16/23 $230.00 $50.4K 2.0K 280
CAT PUT SWEEP BEARISH 06/16/23 $230.00 $50.3K 2.0K 213
CAT PUT SWEEP BEARISH 06/16/23 $230.00 $50.2K 2.0K 313
CAT PUT TRADE BEARISH 06/16/23 $230.00 $49.9K 2.0K 346
CAT PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 06/16/23 $230.00 $49.5K 2.0K 246

Where Is Caterpillar Standing Right Now?

  • With a volume of 86,927, the price of CAT is up 1.95% at $229.09.
  • RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversold.
  • Next earnings are expected to be released in 44 days.

What The Experts Say On Caterpillar:

  • Baird downgraded its action to Neutral with a price target of $230
  • UBS downgraded its action to Sell with a price target of $225

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.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
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Posted In: OptionsMarketsBZI-UOA
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