Oil Discovery Drives Demand for Harvest Natural Resources Call Options
by Option Review - June 13th, 2011 8:36 pm
Today’s tickers: HNR, ESI, XHB & FII
HNR - Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. – News Harvest Natural Resources discovered oil off the coast of Gabon sent shares in the Houston, TX-based company up as much as 29.0% to an intraday high of $13.56. The sharp rally in the price of the underlying on the reports spurred bullish plays in Harvest’s options this morning. Shares are currently up a lesser 12.65% at $11.83 as of 12:25pm on the East Coast. Options players purchased roughly 1,600 calls at the June $12.5 strike for an average premium of $0.54 each. The call options were in-the-money earlier in the session, but are now trading out-of-the-money as the rally has cooled somewhat. Investors long the calls are poised to profit should shares in HNR increase 10.2% over the current price of $11.83 to surpass the average breakeven point to the upside at $13.04 by expiration on Friday. Like-minded bulls seeking a longer-term run-up in the price of the shares picked up roughly 1,000 calls at the September $12.5 strike for an average premium of $2.09 a-pop. Call buyers at this strike make money if shares in Harvest Natural Resources surge 23.3% to trade above the average breakeven price of $14.59 by September expiration. Options implied volatility on Harvest stands 9.8% higher on the session at 82.44% just after 12:30pm in New York.
ESI - ITT Educational Services, Inc. – Shares in the for-profit provider of degree programs in the U.S. rallied nearly 2.0% this morning to touch an intraday high of $83.74 after analysts at Piper Jaffray raised their share price target on the stock to $84.00 from $75.00. Despite the rise in shares of ITT Educational Services today one options strategist is positioning for the price of the underlying to drop sharply ahead of June…