Hims & Hers added GLP-1 injections to its weight-loss services
Hims & Hers Health Inc (NYSE:HIMS) stock is soaring today, up 29.4% to trade at $18.85 and earlier hitting a three-year high of $20.11. Today’s pop comes after the healthcare platform added GLP-1 injections to its weight-loss services, a compounded and cheap version of Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) semaglutide (the active ingredient in popular weight-loss drug Wegovy). Since the start of the year, HIMS is sporting a 110% lead, with the 100-day moving average stepping up as support earlier this month.
Options bulls are blasting the stock in response. So far, 147,000 calls have been exchanged — 14 times the call volume typically seen at this point — in comparison to 41,000 puts. The weekly 5/24 20-strike call is the most popular contract by far, where new positions are being opened.
This penchant for calls is far from unusual. HIMS sports a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 5.60 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), yet this sharply call-biased ratio ranks higher than only 23% of readings from the last year, showing traders were even more bullish previously.
Short interest has been building, up 41.7% in the last month, and now represents 10.3% of the stock’s available float. It would take shorts roughly three days to cover their bets, at HIMS’ average pace of trading.