Amazon, Apple Leap Over Tesla in Top 3 Options Volume After Earnings

The third quarter results marked an eighth straight quarterly earnings beat for the company, data showed. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 also exceeded analysts' estimates, buoyed by stronger than expected online store sales and advertising and robust growth at Amazon Web Services.

The company also said net sales for the fourth quarter could reach between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion, including unfavorable impact of about 10 basis points from foreign exchange rates. While the midpoint of that range is below the $186.4 billion Bloomberg consensus, JPMorgan analysts see the outlook as "strong," as they raised their price target for the stock to $250, from $230, while boosting their EPS forecast for the stock by as much as 7%.

JPM analysts reiterated their overweight rating on the stock, citing "solid AWS growth with AI monetization ramping," oting significant margin expansion for the business.

A more than $13 jump in the share price pushed many of the call options in-the-money, just hours before expiration, helping boost volume. That likely include shareholders who sold covered call options and are now buying them back to prevent the option holders from exercising the contracts.

As expected, the rally rendered many put options out-of-the-money, prompting the holders to exit those positions before they expire worthless.

In the case of Apple, a $3.78 decline in the share price pushed many call options out-of-the-money, while rendering many put options in-the-money. That helped boost options volume to 895,780 contracts so far, putting Apple on pace to be the third most heavily traded stock options.

Shares of Apple slipped after Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri forecast that revenue for its December fiscal quarter will rise low-to-mid-single digits from a year earlier during the company's earnings call late Wednesday. He also said services revenue is expected to "grow double digits at a rate similar to what we reported in the fiscal year 2024."

Market consensus on Apple could "reset lower," with expectations that "seem far too high looking out" to 2025-2026, Bloomberg quoted KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel as saying. He has an underweight rating on Apple, with a price target of $200, implying his outlook for downside potential from the current stock price of $222.56.

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