Office Depot Calls Active
by Option Review - May 8th, 2014 4:34 pm
Big prints in at-the-money call options on Office Depot suggests one large options market participant may be positioning for shares in the office supplies retailer to continue its move to the upside during the next year and a half to expiration. ODP shares are currently up less than 1.0% with less than 30 minutes remaining in the trading session to stand at $5.04.
The most traded options contracts on the stock today were the Jan’16 $5.0 strike calls, with upwards of 16,000 contracts traded against open interest of fewer than 1,300 positions. Time and sales data suggests the bulk of the volume traded during the first hour of the session at an average premium of $1.275 each. The contracts appear to have been purchased outright, though there’s no telling whether or not the trader has an established position in the underlying shares. The calls make money at expiration in the event that shares in ODP rally 25% over the current price to exceed the breakeven point at $6.275. Shares in Office Depot are up more than 30% since mid-April, having bounced off a six-month low of $3.84 reached April 16th. The shares sprinted higher earlier in the week after the company reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, raised its profit forecast for the full year and announced it plans to close at least 400 U.S. locations.
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Weekly Puts In Play On Financial Stocks As Shares Extend Losses
by Option Review - May 9th, 2012 2:47 pm
Today’s tickers: WFC, MS, ODP & CPWM
WFC - Wells Fargo & Co. – Financial stocks were among the weakest performers as trading got underway this morning, spurring bearish activity in options on the largest banks. Shares in Wells Fargo are down 1.3% at $32.73 as of midday in New York, having surrendered a total of 5.4% since reaching a more than three-year high of $34.59 on April 2nd. Weekly put buying on San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo & Co. suggests some traders anticipate the stock may continue to sell off through the end of this week. The May 11 ’12 $32 strike put saw the most action, with more than 2,600 of the contracts purchased for an average premium of $0.16 apiece this morning. Put buyers may profit at expiration if shares in WFC decline another 2.7% to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $31.84.
MS - Morgan Stanley – Investors in Morgan Stanley are feeling more pain today, with shares in the name down 0.50% at $15.76 in early afternoon trading on the heels of a more than 25.0% move lower since the end of March. Options traders looking to benefit from further potential weakness in the shares snapped up more than 3,200 puts at the May 11 ’12 $15 strike for an average premium of $0.13 apiece. Traders long the weekly $15 puts on the financial services firm stand ready to profit in the event that shares in Morgan Stanley drop another 5.6% to trade below the average breakeven price of $14.87. Shares in MS last traded south of $14.87 back in December 2011.…
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Near-Term Bullish Bets On The Rise At Thermo Fisher Scientific
by Option Review - April 12th, 2012 3:19 pm
Today’s tickers: TMO, ODP & LYB
TMO - Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. – Front month call buying on the provider of analytical technologies and laboratory products suggests at least one options player is positioning for the price of the underlying to extend gains in the near term. Shares in Thermo Fisher Scientific moved up sharply in the first three months of the 2012, climbing nearly 30.0% to $58.37 by the end of March. April showers washed away some of those gains, however, with the stock surrendering around 9.0% during the first two weeks of this month. Today’s 2.6% pop in the price of the underlying to $54.72 saw a pickup in near-term bullish action on the stock. One or more traders snapped up calls on TMO, with around 1,090 contracts changing hands at the April $55 strike against open interest of 254 positions. Most of the calls appear to have been purchased for an average premium of $0.50 apiece, thus positioning buyers to profit should Thermo Fisher’s shares increase another 1.4% to surpass the breakeven price of $55.50 by expiration next week. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings ahead of the opening bell on April 25th, the week following options expiration.
ODP - Office Depot, Inc. – The single-largest trade in Office Depot options this morning appears to be a vote of confidence in the office supplies retailer, initiated by an investor positioning for shares in the name to trade north of $2.50 through October expiration. Shares today rose 3.5% to stand at $3.23 as of 12:45 p.m. in New York. It looks like the strategist responsible for the bullish bet on ODP sold 2,500 puts at the Oct. $2.5 strike to pocket premium of $0.25 per contract. The trader keeps the full amount…
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Bullish Options Build On Biotech Company Gilead Sciences
by Option Review - February 28th, 2012 1:34 pm
Today’s tickers: GILD, SPLS & ODP
GILD - Gilead Sciences, Inc. – Bullish activity in the biotechnology company’s options jumped and shares in Gilead Sciences moved up more than 2.0% to $46.18 the same day the drug maker presented at the 2012 RBC Capital Markets’ Healthcare Conference in New York. Positive comments from management along with the impending April 19th first-quarter earnings report from the Company could be catalysts for the sizable bull call spreads accumulating in the April expiry. It looks like one investor purchased a roughly 15,000-lot April $47/$50 call spread for a net premium of $1.13 per contract to position for shares to extend gains during the next couple of months. Profits may be available on the spread in the event that Gilead’s shares rally another 4.2% to surpass the average breakeven price of $48.13, while maximum possible profits of $1.87 per contract pad the investor’s wallet should the stock surge 8.3% to top $50.00 at expiration. Gilead’s shares had realized year-to-date gains of 35.0% earlier this month after the Company’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report sent the stock up as high as $56.50 on the 6th of February. The stock subsequently came back down with a thud shortly after reaching its highest level since 2008, but the options trader responsible for the call activity this morning is poised to benefit should the stock regain its footing in the near term.
SPLS - Staples, Inc. – Shares in the office supplies retailer rallied 4.7% to $15.95 in sympathy with competitor, Office Depot, Inc., which opened sharply higher on better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings released ahead of the opening bell this morning. Staples is scheduled to reveal its fourth-quarter performance before U.S. markets open on Wednesday, and it looks like options traders are positioning for the upward move in…
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Pfizer Options Active Ahead Of Earnings
by Option Review - January 30th, 2012 1:44 pm
Today’s tickers: PFE, ODP & MRX
PFE - Pfizer Inc. – Signs of bearish sentiment on the drug maker cropped up in Pfizer options on Monday, one day prior to the Company’s fourth-quarter earnings release ahead of the opening bell on Tuesday morning. Pfizer’s shares are down 0.40% to stand at $21.39 as of 11:50 a.m. in New York. In-the-money call selling in the weekly options may mean some traders anticipate a pullback below $21.00 in the price of the underlying by expiration. Traders sold more than 2,500 calls at the Feb. ’03 $21 strike to pocket an average premium of $0.44 apiece. Call sellers walk away with the full amount of premium in hand as long as shares in Pfizer settle below $21.00 at the end of the week. Call selling can be risky, particularly if sellers are naked short the call options and shares in Pfizer rally rather than retreat as the strategy predicts. Losses accumulate on the upside above an effective breakeven share price of $21.44. Meanwhile, a longer-term bearish play popped up in the April expiry. One investor purchased a 2,000-lot April $19/$22 put spread at a net premium of $1.09 per contract. The strategist may be outright bearish on Pfizer, positioning for a limited pullback in the shares over the next several months. Alternatively, the trader may be cautiously optimistic on the pharmaceuticals giant, establishing the put spread to hedge a long position in the underlying shares. Profits, or downside protection, on the spread kick in if shares in Pfizer drop 2.2% to breach the effective breakeven price of $20.91 by April expiration. Maximum potential profits of $1.91 per contract are available to the investor should shares in PFE plunge 11.2% to settle at or below $19.00.…
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Traders Pile Into Office Depot Calls As Shares Climb
by Option Review - September 13th, 2011 2:46 pm
Today’s tickers: ODP, JPM, GWW & BUD
ODP - Office Depot, Inc. – Call options are flying off the shelves at office supplies retailer Office Depot today, with shares in the Boca Raton, Florida-based company surging 9.5% to $2.53 just before 1:45 pm ET. It looks like investors have exchanged 18,677 options on Office Depot thus far today, where all but 716 of the contracts are calls. The now in-the-money September $2.5 strike call is by far the most active this afternoon. More than 14,000 calls have changed hands at that strike, and it appears the majority of the contracts were purchased for an average premium of $0.15 apiece. Demand for the Sept. $2.5 strike calls was evident straight out of the gate this morning, as some 3,000 contracts were picked up at a premium of $0.10 each within the first 10 minutes of the opening bell. Call volume jumped in afternoon trade, where it now appears that at least 12,500 contracts were purchased at the $2.5 strike price. September contract calls have a few days remaining before they expire at the end of the week. Perhaps buyers of the calls are expecting Office Depot’s shares to extend gains through Friday. Call buying spread to the October $2.5 strike where some 2,000 contracts were purchased for a premium of $0.30 a-pop. Another 1,000 calls appear to have been purchased up at the October $3.0 strike at a premium of $0.15 apiece. Investors holding the longer-dated October contract call options profit in the event that ODP’s shares exceed the effective breakeven prices of $2.80 and $3.15 at expiration, respectively. The options expire well in advance of Office Depot’s third-quarter earnings report ahead of the opening bell on October 26.
JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Shares in JPMorgan may be on…
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Bearish Players Eye Men’s Wearhouse Put Options Ahead of Earnings
by Option Review - June 8th, 2011 5:08 pm
Today’s tickers: MW, ABV, ANR & ODP
MW - The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. – Investors are posturing in Men’s Wearhouse put options this afternoon ahead of the retailer’s first-quarter earnings report after the final bell. Shares in the Houston, TX-based company are well off their lows of the session, but still trade 0.65% lower today at $30.61 as of 1:35pm on the East Coast. One options strategist donned a debit put spread in the June contract to position for the price of the underlying shares to fall. The trader picked up 1,500 puts at the June $30 strike for a premium of $1.25 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower June $28 strike at a premium of $0.47 a-pop. Net premium paid to initiate the spread amounts to $0.78 per contract. The investor profits if shares in Men’s Wearhouse drop 4.5% post-earnings to breach the effective breakeven price of $29.22. Maximum potential profits of $1.22 per contract pad the investor’s wallet in the event that MW’s shares plunge 8.5% in the next week and a half to trade below $28.00 at June expiration. Options implied volatility on the clothing company currently stands 7.7% higher on the session at 50.64%. Investors have exchanged a total of 6,295 call and put options on the stock as of 1:40pm, which is substantial relative to MW’s total open interest of 11,578 contracts. Pre earnings report options players are exchanging more than 3.5 put options on the stock for each single call option on the retailer this afternoon.
ABV - AmBev – Shares in AmBev, a subsidiary of global brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev, rose nearly 1.1% at the start of the trading session to $31.94. Activity in AmBev call options this morning suggests one strategist expects shares in the biggest brewery in…
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Rumor Mill Sends Traders to Shire Options, Drives Shares to All-Time High
by Option Review - May 11th, 2011 4:02 pm
Today’s tickers: SHPGY, ODP, SKX & GNW
SHPGY - Shire PLC – The maker of Adderall XR and other pharmaceutical products attracted a diverse crowd of bullish options strategists during the session on speculation there are parties interested in acquiring the biopharmaceutical company. Shares in Shire are currently up 2.95% to arrive at an intraday- and new all-time high of $96.00. Plain-vanilla call buyers flocked to front month to position for continued new highs in Shire’s shares ahead of May expiration. Meanwhile, June contract put options provided the medium for a different type of bullish play today. Speculators engaging near-term call options picked up in- and out-of-the-money contracts, purchasing around 500 calls as high as the May $100 strike for an average premium of $0.23 each. Call buyers at the May $100 strike profit at expiration if shares in Shire are trading above $100.23. Investors may also choose to sell the calls ahead of expiration at an advantageous price should takeover chatter continue to bump up the price of the underlying, and perhaps more importantly, options implied volatility. Shire’s overall reading of implied volatility is up 24.5% to stand at 26.59% as of 2:15pm in New York. The options trader targeting put options is positioning to maximize profits on a credit spread should shares in Shire exceed $92.50 through June expiration. It looks like the investor sold approximately 2,400 puts at the June $92.5 strike for a premium of $1.63 each, and purchased roughly the same number of puts at the lower June $85 strike at a premium of $0.45 apiece. The investor pockets a net credit representing maximum potential profits on the spread of $1.18 per contract, and keeps all of it as long as the put options expire worthless at expiration. The risk involved in this type of strategy is not for the faint of heart. Shares in SHPGY could potentially reverse course ahead of expiration. In such a case, the trader starts losing money below a breakeven share price of $91.32. Maximum potential losses on the transaction, while limited to $6.32 per contract, far exceed the net credit received for bearing the risk. However, it seems the investor is willing to tolerate this risk-reward profile…
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Put Player Portends Pullback in Corning Shares
by Option Review - February 11th, 2011 4:38 pm
Today’s tickers: GLW, EXPE, ODP & TSO
GLW - Corning Inc. – A massive put spread purchased on the glass maker this afternoon appears to be the work of an investor positioning for the price of the underlying stock to decline ahead of August 2011 expiration. Corning’s shares increased 0.55% this afternoon to arrive at $22.28 by 1:40pm in New York. The price of the underlying stock has climbed more than 51.6% since August 27, 2010, to touch a 52-week high of $23.43 just last Friday. The large bearish stance employed in Corning put options today is perhaps a sign that at least one player believes the next six months may not be as fruitful for GLW investors as the last six. The trader purchased 28,000 puts at the August $22 strike for a premium of $1.83 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower August $18 strike at a premium of $0.56 apiece. Net premium required to buy the spread amounts to $1.27 per contract, thus positioning the investor to profit should Corning’s shares drop 7.0% from the current price of $22.28 to breach the effective breakeven point on the downside at $20.37 by August expiration day. Maximum potential profits of $2.73 pad the put player’s wallet in the event that shares in GLW plummet 19.2% to trade below $18.00 before the contracts expire in August. Corning’s shares last traded below $18.00 back on December 1, 2010.
EXPE - – Expedia, Inc. – Contrarian options traders are initiating bullish plays on the online travel company this morning in the face of a more than 18.25% decline in Expedia’s shares to an intraday low of $20.99. Bullish strategists established near- and long-term positions that suggest the firm’s earnings miss has been priced in to its shares. Some traders are betting the stock is unlikely to fall much further, while others are initiating outright bullish bets that Expedia’s shares will recover somewhat in the next few months. Shares in EXPE dropped after the company…
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Pessimistic Player Targets Momenta Pharmaceuticals Put Options
by Option Review - December 22nd, 2010 4:08 pm
Today’s tickers: RHT, XLF, MNTA, ODP, AA & CVBF
RHT - Red Hat, Inc. – Shares of the software company are down 2.5% at $46.67 in the final hour of the trading session, but near-term options activity on the stock suggests investors are hoping for the stock to rally ahead of January expiration. Red Hat’s better-than-expected forecast for fourth-quarter profits of $0.21 to $0.22 a share, released during the company’s third-quarter earnings report after the close of trading yesterday, inspired a plethora of analyst upgrades and hikes in share price targets. Investors expecting shares to rebound in short order took advantage of the decline in premium on out-of-the-money calls, and purchased the majority of some 7,850 contracts exchanged at the January 2011 $48 strike today. It looks like bulls bought approximately 4,000 of the call options for an average premium of $0.87 apiece. Call buyers are prepared to make money should Red Hat’s shares rally 4.7% over the current price of $46.67 to surpass the average breakeven price of $48.87 by January expiration. Following earnings, the overall reading of options implied volatility on the world’s largest distributor of the open-source Linux operating system plunged 27.7% to 29.90% by 3:45pm.
XLF - Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF – The purchase of a massive chunk of March 2011 contract put options on the financials SPDR ETF appears to be the work of a cautiously optimistic options strategist hedging a large position in the underlying shares. Shares in the XLF, an exchange-traded fund designed to track the performance of the Financial Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, are up 0.90% to stand at $15.95 as of 3:45pm in New York. The investor appears to have established a delta neutral hedge, buying 1,500,000 shares of XLF, and picking up 50,000 protective puts at the March 2011 $15 strike for a premium of $0.39 per contract on a 0.30 delta. It seems the trader is positioning for continued bullish movement in the price of XLF shares, but opting to shell out…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.