Microsoft shares have rallied nearly 40 percent in the last year, and traders are betting that there's more room to run ahead of its earnings report Thursday after the bell.
The tech giant hit another all-time high on Wednesday, as Wall Street continues to see more growth opportunity in its cloud business.
According to Mike Khouw of Optimize Advisors, the options market is implying the stock could move four percent in either direction after its report. Leading up to Microsoft's earnings, Khouw noted, "we have actually for the entire month now seen some pretty bullish flows, culminating last Friday with almost 164,000 call options." The stock is tracking for its best month since July 2016, up more than 7 percent.
Those options traders were targeting the 76 strike, "which happens to be about 4 percent to the upside. That's the direction they're betting," Khouw said Tuesday on CNBC's "Fast Money."
Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting Microsoft to post earnings of $3.03 per share on $96.27 billion in revenue.
