“Weekly Options TradeS” Recommendations
Week Beginning Monday, January 31, 2022

Weekly Options Trade – QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) Calls

Thursday, February 03, 2022

** OPTION TRADE: Buy QCOM MAR 04 2022 200.000 CALLS - price at last close was $7.55. (However, this stock is down pre-market by 3.70% at the time of writing; therefore, you should find a much cheaper entry price - adjust accordingly)

(Some members have asked for the following.....BASE THIS ON YOUR RISK TOLERANCE!

Place a pre-determined sell at $10.50. (50% Profit if a $7.00 entry price)

Include a protective stop loss of $2.80. (60% loss based on $7.00 entry price)

(CAUTION: Check the direction of the stock movement before executing – enter at the best available price – as you will be aware this stock market of late is extremely volatile and very unpredictable!)

NOTE: Personally, due to the volatility the market is experiencing as well as the fact that I am hands-on, I do not use a protective stop loss, but do have a flexible pre-determined sell point – I am not pushing for 100% unless I feel that it has the legs to accomplish this!)

AGAIN – ADJUST TO YOUR OWN RISK TOLERANCE!

Prelude.....

It's been a tough start to the year for many of the best tech stocks, hurt in part by a sharp rise in the 10-year Treasury yield as the Federal Reserve gets ready to hike interest rates.

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), the biggest maker of chips that run smartphones, slipped in late trading after efforts to expand beyond its main business were hampered by chip shortages in the latest quarter.

Qualcomm’s fiscal first-quarter results sent the shares down about 2.3% in late trading, despite the company giving an upbeat forecast for the current period. Revenue will be $10.2 billion to $11 billion, Qualcomm said, compared with an average analyst estimate of $9.59 billion. Earnings will be at least $2.80 a share, well ahead of the $2.48 projection.

Qualcomm chips are appearing more in tablets, virtual-reality headsets and wearable devices. In industrial applications, the company’s products can be found in energy metering, warehouse logistics systems and retail point-of-sale equipment.

Like many other chipmakers, Qualcomm outsources production to companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. A surge in demand has left these foundries unable to keep up. Amon has said that he expects to be able to get more supply in the second half of 2022.

The company is unique in the industry because a large chunk of its profit comes from technology licensing. Makers of phones pay to use Qualcomm’s technology, regardless of whether they buy its chips, because the company owns patents that cover some of the fundamentals of mobile communications.

Qualcomm said Wednesday that Android devices -- rather than Apple -- fueled its sales gain in the smartphone market.

Revenue has the potential to top $46 billion by fiscal year 2024, Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala said at a company event late last year. That was above analysts’ projections at the time.

About Qualcomm…..

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Qualcomm Incorporated designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecom products and services based on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.

It operates through the following segments: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL), and Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI). The QCT segment develops and supplies integrated circuits and system software based on technologies for the use in voice and data communications, networking, application processing, multimedia, and global positioning system products. The QTL segment grants licenses and provides rights to use portions of the firm's intellectual property portfolio. The QSI segment focuses on opening new or expanding opportunities for its technologies and supporting the design and introduction of new products and services for voice and data communications.

The company was founded by Franklin P. Antonio, Adelia A. Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, Irwin Mark Jacobs, Andrew J. Viterbi, and Harvey P. White in July 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

During the regular session Wednesday, Qualcomm stock jumped 6.3% to close at 188.20.

According to the issued ratings of 21 analysts in the last year, the consensus rating for QUALCOMM stock is Buy based on the current 9 hold ratings and 12 buy ratings for QCOM. The average twelve-month price target for QUALCOMM is $183.95 with a high price target of $225.00 and a low price target of $137.00.

Summary.....

Still, Qualcomm shares fell about 6% in after-hours trading as the results were overshadowed by Facebook owner Meta's weaker-than-expected profit and forecast.

However, this result is improving as we get closer to the trading session today.

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Weekly Options Trade – ChargePoint Holdings Inc (NYSE: CHPT) Calls

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

** OPTION TRADE: Buy CHPT MAR 04 2022 14.500 CALLS - price at last close was $1.16. (However, this stock is moving up pre-market – adjust accordingly)

(Some members have asked for the following.....BASE THIS ON YOUR RISK TOLERANCE!

Place a pre-determined sell at $2.30. (100% Profit)

Include a protective stop loss of $0.45. (60% loss)

(CAUTION: Check the direction of the stock movement before executing – enter at the best available price – as you will be aware this stock market of late is extremely volatile and very unpredictable!)

NOTE: Personally, due to the volatility the market is experiencing as well as the fact that I am hands-on, I do not use a protective stop loss, but do have a flexible pre-determined sell point – I am not pushing for 100% unless I feel that it has the legs to accomplish this!)

AGAIN – ADJUST TO YOUR OWN RISK TOLERANCE!

Prelude.....

Volatility is way up. January brought us a market correction to start out 2022 – but then the last three trading sessions saw impressive daily gains. Investor sentiment is getting a boost from a generally positive earnings season, but Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, JPMorgan's global head of equity research, has identified some additional support for the markets.

“[The] Fed is likely to strike a more dovish tone relative to extreme investor expectations, which could trigger an equity rebound. Expectations are so hawkish at this point, we believe the bar for a positive surprise from the Fed at the current juncture is fairly low,” Lakos-Bujas noted.

The stock analysts at JPMorgan are following the strategy team’s lead, and finding stocks with a bullish outlook going on from here. One such stock is ChargePoint Holdings Inc (NYSE: CHPT), a leader in the EV charging network ecosystem in both the US and in Europe.

ChargePoint had a good year last year, as far as the top line shows. Revenues rose in 2021, and the 3Q results – the last reported – came in at $65 million, for a 79% year-over-year increase. In the wake of the strong revenue result, the company raised its full-year 2021 revenue estimate to the range of $235 million to $240 million, a 3.2% increase at the midpoint.

Despite rising sales, ChargePoint’s stock is down. The shares were volatile in 2021, but the falling-off trend was clear – and CHPT is down 63% in the last 12 months.

However, Monday saw ChargePoint close the day nearly 10% higher. Shares of the operator of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network benefited from an award from a notable U.S. consulting company.

About ChargePoint…..

The transition of Switchback Energy Acquisition (NYSE:SBE) fulfilled its purpose as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and ChargePoint Holdings Inc (NYSE: CHPT) went public on March 1. So now, the company is trading on the New York Stock Exchange as CHPT stock.

CHPT stock used to be SBE stock. And since it was a SPAC stock, it stayed close to the $10 level for a number of months in 2020.

Switchback shot up by more than 250% in 2020. And ChargePoint distinguishes itself as one of the oldest and largest electric vehicle charing networks out there. ChargePoint’s 5,000+ commercial fleet customers include more than three-fourths of the Fortune 50 companies, and its 163,000+ networked charging points give it a 70% market share in the North American and European networked EV charging markets.

Once the public learned that Switchback was planning to merge with a company involved in the electric vehicle sector, the bulls really started charging ahead.

They ran the share price up to a 52-week high of $49.48 on Dec. 24 of 2020. However, SBE/CHPT stock started to decline after that.

According to the issued ratings of 15 analysts in the last year, the consensus rating for ChargePoint stock is Buy based on the current 5 hold ratings and 10 buy ratings for CHPT. The average twelve-month price target for ChargePoint is $30.40 with a high price target of $46.00 and a low price target of $20.00.

Summary.....

Both in operational and fundamental terms, the company continues to grow robustly in its clear ambition to achieve scale.

Making it more attractive is that ChargePoint stock's forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio has fallen to nearly 11 from more than 28 in July last year. The ratio is also lower than ChargePoint's average ratio of 19 in the last year.

ChargePoint's ratio compares favorably with its peers Blink Charging and EVgo, though it's higher than Volta's ratio.

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $18.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.36. ChargePoint has a 12-month low of $11.21 and a 12-month high of $43.00.

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Weekly Options Trade – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Calls

Tuesday, February 01, 2022

** OPTION TRADE: Buy AAPL MAR 04 2022 175.000 CALLS - price at last close was $5.40. (adjust accordingly – up to $5.80 OR even market price)

(Some members have asked for the following.....BASE THIS ON YOUR RISK TOLERANCE!

Place a pre-determined sell at $10.80. (100% Profit)

Include a protective stop loss of $2.20. (60% loss)

(CAUTION: Check the direction of the stock movement before executing – enter at the best available price – as you will be aware this stock market of late is extremely volatile and very unpredictable!)

NOTE: Personally, due to the volatility the market is experiencing as well as the fact that I am hands-on, I do not use a protective stop loss, but do have a flexible pre-determined sell point – I am not pushing for 100% unless I feel that it has the legs to accomplish this!)

AGAIN – ADJUST TO YOUR OWN RISK TOLERANCE!

Prelude.....

Over the years, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has captivated consumers with its sleek devices, cultivating an incredible brand image in the process. But the company is more than trendy products. Its iOS operating system strategically reinforces its brand authority, creating an ecosystem that's hard to replicate. Unlike Android, iOS is closed-source, meaning third-party manufacturers cannot integrate the software into their own devices to provide an Apple-like experience at a lower price point. That gives Apple significant pricing power and a great degree of control over its ecosystem.

To that end, Apple's lineup of trendy devices -- iPhones, iPad, Macs, and various wearables -- creates two opportunities for monetization. The first is by selling the devices themselves, and the second comes from providing services to those devices. That comprises payments services like Apple Pay, cloud services like iCloud, and App Store purchases, which itself includes subscription services like Apple Fitness+, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade.

Despite supply chain headwinds, Apple delivered strong growth on both sides of its business in the most recent quarter.

Mac has been on a tear since the pandemic took hold and lockdowns, work-from-home, and online schooling became a thing. Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the strong sales during the company's first-quarter earnings call in response to a question from Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross.

"Mac set an all-time revenue record at $10.9 billion for the quarter. That was up 25%. And as you point out, the last six quarters for the Mac have been the top six revenue quarters of all time," he said. "And what's further very good about this is, we set all-time revenue records in Americas, in Europe, and the rest of Asia Pacific. And we set a December quarter record in Greater China. And so it's not narrowed to a particular geographic area that we're doing well in. It's almost -- about almost across the board."

Shares of Applehave outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year (+27.8% vs. +19.3%), with the block-busted December-quarter results expected to help sustain the stock's momentum despite the ongoing market volatility.

According to the issued ratings of 32 analysts in the last year, the consensus rating for Apple stock is Buy based on the current 6 hold ratings, 24 buy ratings and 2 strong buy ratings for AAPL. The average twelve-month price target for Apple is $188.77 with a high price target of $210.00 and a low price target of $155.00.

Summary.....

Despite its $2.8 trillion market cap, Apple is well positioned to create wealth for shareholders. Its tremendous brand authority should fuel consumer demand and its expanding services business should help the company better monetize its installed user base.

Also, with Wall Street feeling skittish about unprofitable growth stocks, now looks like a good time to add Apple -- a company that generated $93 billion in free cash flow over the past year.

Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $116.21 and a twelve month high of $182.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The company has a market cap of $2.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $170.65 and its 200-day moving average is $156.05.

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Weekly Options Trade – Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) PUTS

Monday, January 31, 2022

** OPTION TRADE: Buy SNAP FEB 11 2022 30.000 PUTS - price at last close was $2.78. (adjust accordingly – up to $3.20 OR even market price)

(Some members have asked for the following.....BASE THIS ON YOUR RISK TOLERANCE!

Place a pre-determined sell at $5.50. (100% Profit)

Include a protective stop loss of $1.10. (60% loss)

(CAUTION: Check the direction of the stock movement before executing – enter at the best available price – as you will be aware this stock market of late is extremely volatile and very unpredictable!)

NOTE: Personally, due to the volatility the market is experiencing as well as the fact that I am hands-on, I do not use a protective stop loss, but do have a flexible pre-determined sell point – I am not pushing for 100% unless I feel that it has the legs to accomplish this!)

AGAIN – ADJUST TO YOUR OWN RISK TOLERANCE!

Prelude.....

The end of 2021 and the initial trading days of 2022 have been rough for tech stocks. The prospect of multiple interest rate hikes has investors fleeing to risk-off assets, including stocks. And that means some of the biggest tech stocks may have further to fall.

But for growth investors, tech remains the sector to be in. Some appealing stocks have dropped 50% or more from their 2021 highs. That means it’s inevitable that some savvy buyers will be moving in to buy their favorite names at a discounted price.

However, price doesn’t always equal value. Some stocks have sold off and may never recover their previous level. Those are tough lessons for investors to learn.

Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) may not be quite in this category, but will continue to flounder in the near future.

This may be apparent when Snap reports earnings on Thursday, this week.

And, as mentioned last week....

With the S&P 500 sliding more than 10% from recent records – NOW fallen further, bears from the likes of Mizuho International Plc and Bank of America Corp. warn of fresh selling to come as growth momentum eases just as the Federal Reserve amps up borrowing costs.

“There’s probably more downside over the next few months as the market adjusts to the reality of the Fed removing accommodation, earnings slowdown and much less federal stimulus,” said Ed Clissold, the chief U.S. strategist at Ned Davis Research, who late last year predicted a double-digit drop in stocks and today is warning of a correction on the order of 20% from the early January peak.

Investors are coming to terms with a more hawkish Fed that won’t step in to smooth over every market hiccup. They expect policy makers to plow on with higher rates, with a quarter-point hike in March and close to a full percentage point rise for the whole of 2022.

For many, the direction of travel is troublesome for rate-sensitive investing styles.

“We can see this downward pressure on the equity markets being relatively sticky unless there is a catalyst for a much less hawkish Fed and general global central bank reaction,” said Peter Chatwell, head of multi-asset strategy at Mizuho. “The market stress scenario is what we think is happening now.”

Fears of a conflict added to concerns that a years-old bubble in tech will finally burst as the US Federal Reserve puts up interest rates and scales back massive pandemic stimulus.

Stocks which have benefitted from the long era of cheap money and the rise of remote working suffered badly ahead of an apparent return to normal life.

Worries over the market were underscored by purchasing managers’ index data that showed US economic activity slowed during January.

Analysts at investment bank Jefferies said the sell-off may signal markets expect the US will enter a recession. John Canavan from Oxford Economics said the sell-off “highlight[s] the risks of an aggressive Fed”.

The Federal Open Markets Committee is expected to continue a shift towards tighter policy at its Wednesday meeting.

The deteriorating backdrop is starting to show on quarterly earnings reports, which have so far served as reassuring beacons against any doomsday predictions.

After unprecedented successive jumps in earnings growth, the guidance from S&P 500 companies so far for the months ahead is “disappointing” and the information offered by managers in earnings calls is “concerning,” according to a note by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists on Monday.

“The froth is coming out of an equity market that simply got too extended on valuation,” Mike Wilson, a long-term bear at Morgan Stanley, wrote Monday.

A “rocky” stretch for U.S. stocks is far from over, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes poised to fall into bear markets thanks to the Federal Reserve’s newfound zeal to undercut inflation, according to Jeremy Siegel, finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The long-time market watcher said he expects more than four interest-rate hikes this year, a risk that “equities are not really priced for.” He sees a 20% decline in the Nasdaq 100 from the November record, implying a more than 7% fall from current levels.

“I don’t think the pain is over yet,” Siegel said.

A host of technical signals also suggests that more volatility may be coming. Siegel sees more fundamental challenges ahead, from the Fed struggling to snuff out price pressures to the spreading omicron variant undercutting first-quarter economic expansion.

About Snap.....

Snap, Inc. engages in the operation of its camera platform.

Its products include Snapchat, using the camera and editing tools to take and share Snaps, Friends Page, which lets users create and use Stories, Groups, Video and Chat, Discover for searching and surfacing relevant Stories, Snap Map, which shows friends, Stories and Snaps near the user, Memories, for saving personal collections, and Spectacles, wearable sunglasses capable of taking Snaps and interacting directly with the Snapchat application. The firm's primary source of revenue is advertising.

The company was founded by Frank Reginald Brown IV, Evan Thomas Spiegel, and Robert C. Murphy in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA.

According to the issued ratings of 32 analysts in the last year, the consensus rating for Snap stock is Buy based on the current 7 hold ratings and 25 buy ratings for SNAP. The average twelve-month price target for Snap is $72.53 with a high price target of $104.00 and a low price target of $36.00.

Summary.....

Jefferies analysts said the current selloff is lasting longer than past ones -- and that may mean it will take more time for investors to regain their confidence.

Snap has a 52 week low of $28.02 and a 52 week high of $83.34. The company has a quick ratio of 5.53, a current ratio of 5.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -72.43 and a beta of 1.07.

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