CHRIS VERSACE: Good morning, Action Alerts Plus members. I want to start off with a huge thank you to everyone who tuned into yesterday's live show for our comprehensive review of the AAP rating system. If you missed the call, you can catch a full replay as well as the transcript by heading over to the AAP homepage and clicking on the video tab. Now, with that, I we covered a lot of ground yesterday. So today, I wanted to use the rundown to touch on a few stocks we didn't really get to yesterday.
Let's start with Axon. After adding to the position near 185, we recently downgraded the shares to a two rating giving the sharp move higher to the 220 level. That left less than 10% upside to our modestly above consensus price target of 240. As you know, we've expected others to turn bullish on the name given more than favorable funding prospects from the Federal government, but also state and local ones on police and safety spending. Sure enough, we have a new bull on the name in the form of Goldman Sachs, which started coverage on the shares with a buy rating and a price target of $263.
Now, we always like it when others follow our lead on portfolio positions, and candidly, we doubt this will be the last one when it comes to Axon shares. However, in keeping with our two rating, we would look to get more bullish on Axon shares closer to the 205 to 210 price level, or on program when news that would lead us to revisit our price target. Two other holdings that are catching my attention following the Mastercard's spending polls report that showed retail sales ex auto jumped 6.9% year-over-year are, as you would imagine Mastercard, as well as Clear Secure.
Now, let's put some context around this Mastercard SpendingPulse report for February, again, up 6.9% retail ex auto, that's down from January's 8.8% increase. But candidly, it was better than expected. As you know, members, there's a lot of data contained inside these SpendingPulse reports, so let's dig into what we learned. What were some of the stronger areas of spending? Travel, up 15.5% year-over-year, and lodging which was up even more so.
Two areas of weakness, furniture, durable goods. The report showed spending contracted during February for both. And we'll get more details when the full report is released. But as you can tell by the travel and lodging numbers, it's a clear positive for our shares of clear secure, particularly as it continues to expand its airport footprint. Also too, the overall stronger than expected spending on retail sales ex auto, another positive for Mastercard.
Now, with Mastercard, we've shared with you that that stock is really caught in a tight trading range between 300 and 380. That means that in keeping with our two rating, we would look to add to the shares closer to the $320 level versus the current 361 that they're currently trading at. In other words, we are going to keep our two rating intact on Mastercard shares.
And finally, I also have my eye on Cboe Global Markets. The company's February volume metrics for recently released and its options volume continued to be strong. In particular, one of the stats was regarding the total volume in Cboe volatility index, or as we know VIX options.
During February, that was 13.3 million contracts, the highest monthly volume since March of last year. With the markets once again rethinking expectations for the Fed funds rate, moving it higher, obviously, given Fed Chair Powell's comments earlier this week, the implications for the economy and corporate earnings are likely to keep the market volatile. For us, that means we continue to see investors using Cboe's basket of products to hedge their positions. We've been buyers of Cboe between 112 and 120. And if we see the shares get down in that range, we may once again top off that position.
That'll do it for today's rundown. JD Durkin will be back tomorrow to discuss what recent action in futures and commodities are telling AAP team member, Carley Gardner, about what's ahead for the markets. Be sure to tune in. Trust me, you won't want to miss it.