PNC Financial raises $600 million in capital; investors yawn

The bank was instructed by the U.S. Treasury to boost capital following its stress test results. "I am pleased that we were able to raise the required $600 million of common equity at market prices and in a relatively short time frame," stated chairman and CEO James E. Rohr.

Investors seem relatively unimpressed by the results of PNC's stock sale, with the shares hovering around break-even in early trading. The equity is holding steady atop support from its 10-week moving average, which has guided the shares higher since late March.

Thanks to PNC's short-term rally, many bears have been shaken out of their positions. Short interest on the banking issue is down by more than 10% during the past month, and option traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have started flocking toward calls -- PNC boasts a 10-day ISE call/put volume ratio of 1.04, which ranks higher than 93% of other such readings during the past year.

However, the stock needs a serious boost of buying pressure in order to live up to speculative investors' high hopes. In the June series of options, peak call open interest of 4,684 contracts lies at the out-of-the-money 50 strike, with another notable accumulation of 4,347 calls at the 55 strike.

Based on Tuesday's closing price, PNC needs to rally about 16% during the next several weeks to crack the 50 level, and the shares would need to add more than 27% to place those 55-strike calls in the money. If the equity is unable to make this kind of progress on the charts, some of the bulls could jump ship.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.