Apple Volatility Bets Surge In Options Market As Buyback Beckons
By Sofia Horta E Costa and Callie Bost
Apple Inc.?s new habit of disclosing billions of dollars of stock buybacks along with its April earnings report is contributing to a flurry of options speculation.
Prices for contracts tied to Apple?s shares are the highest in a year and a half relative to the Nasdaq 100 Index before the company releases results on Monday. While the approach of earnings is enough to get speculation brewing in the stock, anticipation is also building after the iPhone maker boosted repurchases in 2013 and 2014. Apple climbed 1.7 percent at 9:41 a.m. in New York.
?What investors are paying attention to are the capital allocation plans,? said Jeffrey Fidacaro, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., who rates Apple?s stock a buy with a price estimate of $145. ?There?s a good probability that they increase.?
Technology shares in the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index rallied 4.1 percent in 2015 through last week and sent the Nasdaq Composite Index to a record for the first time in 15 years as companies from Amazon.com Inc. to EBay Inc. beat profit projections. Apple has jumped 18 percent, taking its market capitalization above $750 billion.