The Sentiment Behind Skechers USA, Inc

Skechers USA, Inc. (NYSE: SKX) is an interesting situation. We are only an hour or so into the regular session but the stock's volume is already on par with total volume from yesterday. Furthermore, the daily chart below shows buyers have been steadily chasing the equity.

Chart Courtesy of Thomson Reuters

This short-term view shows the pattern of higher lows in place since last summer. The stock peaked in January and has been consolidating the gains since then. With today's jump of 5%, shares of Skechers are in a position to breakout. Curiously though, the sentiment profile doesn't really show much in the way of optimism.

(Click image to see live data)

To be fair, this profile isn't skewed toward pessimism and there are some hints of optimism. For example, the Schaeffer's Put/Call Open Interest Ratio (SOIR) has been trending steadily lower. However, the open interest configuration chart shows near-term open interest is light. Furthermore, if you click on the open interest configuration links for March and April, you will see the biggest build up of calls is at the 30 strike, which is slightly in the money. In other words, there doesn't seem to be much speculation with the out-of-the-money calls.

The majority of analysts do rate Skechers with a buy rating, but only 5 analysts cover the stock. Fellow footwear firm Deckers Outdoor Corporation (NASDAQ: DECK) is followed by 13 analysts so there might be room for coverage to grow.

All in all, the optimism shown seems tame when you consider this is a stock that rallied more than 470% over that last 52 weeks.

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