Use options to bet on volatility for these stocks with upcoming analyst days, Goldman says

Second-quarter earnings season is in the rear-view mirror, but there is still a busy calendar in the weeks ahead that could give a jolt to some major stocks. Goldman Sachs’ derivative research team, led by Vishal Vivek, said in a note to clients on Thursday that analyst days add significant volatility to stocks and may be even more impactful during bear markets. “Analyst days have historically been an important catalyst for stocks, and especially so in periods of macro uncertainty. Our analysis shows the average stock across our study moved +/-2.3% on analyst days between 2004-22YTD; this increased to 4.0% in 2008, and is 3.6% in 2022YTD,” the note said. Goldman’s research shows that buying straddles around analyst days have returned about 6% on average since 2004, and 8% this year. A straddle is an options strategy that includes buying a call and a put with the same expiration and strike price. When the strike price is at the money, or equal to the current stock price, the straddle serves as a bet on volatility in either direction. Here are some of the companies Goldman highlighted with upcoming analyst days in September. Source: Goldman Sachs, company websites One of the biggest companies on the list is coffee chain Starbucks . The company announced Laxman Narasimhan as its incoming CEO last week, and Barclays said on Wednesday that investors had a buying opportunity for the stock ahead of Starbucks’ investor day on Sept. 13. Semiconductor stocks have a recent track record of market-moving announcements, and two of the bigger names in the industry have analyst days later this month. Qualcomm , whose shares are down about 30% this year, has an auto-focused investor day on Sept. 22. Meanwhile, Intel has a two-day event focused on innovation near the end of the month. Shares of Intel are down more than 40% year to date and hit a new 52-week low on Thursday. Another beaten-down stock on the list is Workday , which has dropped nearly 40% this year. Tech investors are watching the enterprise software space closely for signs of a recession hitting corporate America, so Workday’s Sept. 13 analyst day could be of broad interest. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.