Shraes of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:¶¶Òõ×îаæ) broke out to fresh multi-year highs yesterday. ¶¶Òõ×îаæ stock finally closed above the $34 level after three previous failed tries. Momentum traders rejoiced, although shares did finish slightly off the highs of the day.
Advanced Micro Devices has now added on over 30% since the lows near $26.50 in late May. All good things must come to an end, though. The red-hot rally in an overbought and overvalued ¶¶Òõ×îаæ has come too far, too fast. Time to take some chips off the table.
InvestorPlace contributor Jay Yao both the bullish and bearish case for ¶¶Òõ×îаæ stock. He noted that ¶¶Òõ×îаæ stock price was comparatively expensive, trading at a forward P/E of 33. Advanced Micro Devices is certainly expensive on trailing P/E basis with shares now sporting a multiple of 137! This is by far the richest valuation over the past year. The only other time ¶¶Òõ×îаæ exceeded a 125 trailing P/E was in June, which marked a significant short-term top in the stock price.
Advanced Micro Devices is looking overdone from a technical perspective as well. ¶¶Òõ×îаæ stock price is up over 80% year-to-date. Momentum is approaching an extreme reading near 5 which has corresponded to powerful pullbacks in the past. Bollinger Band Percent B is back above 1, signaling overbought levels.
¶¶Òõ×îаæ stock is trading at a large premium to the 20-day moving average. Previous instances when ¶¶Òõ×îаæ traded at such a large premium led to a move back to the 20-day moving average.
Earnings for Advanced Micro Devices are due in late July with . The last four quarters have seen ¶¶Òõ×îаæ earnings come in within a penny or two of expectations. Given the historically rich valuations and overbought technicals, it will take a blow out quarter to propel ¶¶Òõ×îаæ appreciably higher. I don’t see that happening.
Stock traders should look to short ¶¶Òõ×îаæ on any further strength. The initial price target is the 20-day moving average near $31.
Option traders may want to take advantage of high implied volatility in front of earnings and sell an out of the money bear call spread. Selling the Aug $38/$40 call spread would bring in 40 cents credit while risking $1.60 for a 35% return on risk. The $38 strike price provides a 10.5% upside cushion to the $34.39 closing price of ¶¶Òõ×îаæ.
As of this writing, Tim Biggam did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Anyone interested in finding out more about option-based strategies or for a free trial of the can email Tim at timbiggam@gmail.com.
