MetLife Options Active As Company Ups Quarterly Dividend
by Option Review - April 23rd, 2013 8:06 pm
Today’s tickers: MET, ARMH & LGF
MET - MetLife, Inc. – Shares in insurance, annuities and employee benefits provider, MetLife, Inc., are popping on Tuesday after the company raised its quarterly dividend for the first time since 2007, increasing the payout to $0.275 from $0.185 a share. MET shares rallied as much as 6.9% in the early going to $38.27, the highest level in three weeks. Traders positioning for continued gains in the price of the underlying snapped up weekly call options on MetLife this morning, driving fresh interest in several striking prices. Of the weekly calls available, the Apr 26 ’13 $38.5 strike calls attracted the most volume with upwards of 1,500 contracts in play as of midday in New York. It looks like most of the $38.5 strike calls were purchased at an average premium of $0.16 apiece, thus positioning buyers to profit should shares in MET settle above the average breakeven price of $38.66. Traders also appear to be buying up calls at the Apr 26 ’13 $37.5 and $38 strikes today. Meanwhile, options players who purchased upside calls on MetLife yesterday are seeing big gains today. Traders yesterday picked up around 1,200 calls at the Apr 26 ’13 $35 strike for an average premium of $0.86 each, and purchased around 1,600 calls at the higher $36 strike for an average premium of $0.26 apiece. These contracts today tout price tags of $3.10 and $2.09 each, respectively, as of the time of this writing, resulting in substantial overnight gains.
ARMH - ARM Holdings Plc – Bullish activity in options on British semiconductor intellectual property company, ARM Holdings, looks for shares in the name to extend gains in the near term. The stock is up 13% at $45.50, the highest level in more than a decade, after the company reported first-quarter sales that beat analyst expectations ahead of the opening bell this morning. Traders anticipating further gains in the stock price during the next couple of months picked up around 570 calls at the Jun $45…
DryShips upgrade attracts option investors to upper deck
by Option Review - April 17th, 2009 4:29 pm
Today’s tickers: DRYS, XTO, LGF, MCRI, RVBD, RF, HA, CBS, PCLN
DRYS DryShips, Inc. – The drybulk carrier’s share price rally of more than 25% to $6.94 breathes new life into DryShips’ sails today amid an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform’ by an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. this morning. The company has also managed to raise $500 million via equity offering that it plans to use to decrease its massive debt. Option investors saluted the bullish news by purchasing calls in the May contract. At the May 7.5 strike price 7,300 calls were picked up for an average premium of 59 cents apiece. Shares need only rise by an additional 7% in order for the May 7.5 strike calls to land in-the-money by expiration next month. More optimistic traders selected the May 9.0 strike and bought 3,000 calls for about 28 cents per contract. Another positive sign for the cargo-carrier was the sale of 1,400 puts at the May 6.0 strike price for 74 cents each as some investors hope that shares remain above the breakeven on the trade at $5.26 by expiration. While much of the activity we observed was bullish in the May contract, we did notice that some downside protection was sought at the May 7.5 strike price as about 2,100 in-the-money puts were picked up at an average premium of 1.55 each.
XTO XTO Energy, Inc. – Shares of the oil and gas exploration company have rallied by more than 3% to $35.20. XTO edged onto our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner after one investor took profits by closing a short put position. It appears that this individual originally established a short position on March 11, 2009, by selling 19,500 puts at the August 22.5 strike price for a premium of 1.86 apiece. Today, he purchased the lot of 19,500 puts at the same strike for an average price of 75 cents apiece. The difference between the two put premiums yields this investor 1.11 today for closing the position. It looks as though he plans to once again profit from a similar trade as he sold 15,000 puts at the August 26 strike price for an average premium of 1.35 apiece.
LGF Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation – The diversified independent producer and distributor of motion pictures jumped to the top of our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after one investor…