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Benzinga Insights

Looking At Mastercard's Recent Whale Trades

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Mastercard (NYSE:MA).

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 MA, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what this whale just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 25 uncommon options trades for Mastercard.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 40% bullish and 60%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 9 are puts, for a total amount of $591,544, and 16 are calls, for a total amount of $796,852.

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 $185.0 to $400.0 for Mastercard over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Mastercard options trades today is 959.43 with a total volume of 1,476.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Mastercard's big money trades within a strike price range of $185.0 to $400.0 over the last 30 days.

Mastercard Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume
MA PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 01/20/23 $230.00 $157.0K 98 200
MA CALL SWEEP BULLISH 06/17/22 $315.00 $130.3K 23 47
MA PUT TRADE BULLISH 09/16/22 $335.00 $115.0K 232 40
MA PUT SWEEP BEARISH 06/17/22 $340.00 $99.0K 3.0K 131
MA CALL TRADE BULLISH 01/20/23 $370.00 $97.5K 558 41

Where Is Mastercard Standing Right Now?

  • With a volume of 2,125,952, the price of MA is up 3.16% at $331.38.
  • RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
  • Next earnings are expected to be released in 76 days.

What The Experts Say On Mastercard:

  • RBC Capital has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Mastercard, which currently sits at a price target of $417.
  • Raymond James has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Mastercard, which currently sits at a price target of $442.
  • BMO Capital has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Mastercard, which currently sits at a price target of $402.
  • Barclays has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Mastercard, which currently sits at a price target of $430.
  • Morgan Stanley has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Mastercard, which currently sits at a price target of $452.

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 {d[company_name]}, Benzinga Progives you real-time options trades alerts.

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