Noteworthy Friday Option Activity: UPST, BFH, PEP

Bread Financial Holdings (BFH) and PepsiCo (PEP) are experiencing notable options activity, with volume reaching 45.8% and 45.6% of their respective average daily trading volumes. Specifically, the BFH $50 strike put option expiring July 18, 2025, and the PEP $125 strike put option expiring June 27, 2025, saw particularly high trading volume.

Analysis

Bread Financial Holdings (BFH) and PepsiCo (PEP) are both experiencing significant options market activity, with today's volume reaching 45.8% and 45.6% of their respective average daily share trading volumes. The activity is not diffuse but is highly concentrated in specific, long-dated put options. For BFH, 1,074 contracts, representing a substantial portion of the day's total options volume of 3,036, were traded for the $50 strike put expiring in July 2025. Similarly, for PEP, the June 2025 $125 strike put saw concentrated volume of 3,112 contracts. The long-term nature of these expirations, both over a year away, suggests this is not short-term speculation but rather strategic positioning. This activity likely indicates either a large institutional investor establishing a hedge against a potential price decline below these strike levels or a significant, long-term bearish directional bet.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Investors should monitor the change in open interest for the BFH July 2025 $50 puts and the PEP June 2025 $125 puts to confirm if this high volume translates into newly established positions, which would strengthen the signal.
• The concentration in these specific long-dated puts indicates that the $50 level for Bread Financial and the $125 level for PepsiCo are critical price points for at least one significant market participant, warranting a review of downside risk for existing long positions.