Today’s tickers: LNG, WMB, KKD & LVS
LNG – Cheniere Energy, Inc. – How much would you be willing to pay for call options with five months to expiration to gain the right to buy a $7.74 stock for $12.00 a share? In the case of Cheniere Energy, one bullish strategist was willing to pay an average of $0.82 per contract, a total price tag of approximately $1.64 million, for some 20,000 September $12 strike calls back on April 14. Shares in LNG at that time had fallen 23.0% since the previous week to trade around $7.74 on the date the calls were purchased. The sizable bullish play on LNG last month left us to consider what the impetus behind such a trade might be, as well as what might be expected to drive shares up 55.0% in the five months to expiration. On Friday shares in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) provider surged 44.5% to $11.11 on news the company received government approval to export fuel to more countries. Cheniere’s shares rallied as much as 15.3% over Friday’s high of $11.11 to touch today’s intraday- and new 52-week high of $12.81 on news of the approval. Whether the call buyer was speculating on a post-export approval rally or not is unknown and perhaps rather unimportant at this point. The decision to buy the calls outright for an average premium of $0.82 per contract has, for the time being, proven well worth the initial cost. September $12 strike calls on Cheniere Energy cost as much as $2.85 per contract this morning, that’s roughly 3.5 times as much as the investor paid for the options back in April. The initial play saw the speculator layout $1.64 million, which today was worth as much as $5.7 million. Open interest of 21,483 calls at the September $12 strike suggests the investor is not surprised by the jump in value and as such shows no signs of closing the position just yet. At expiration, the trader profits…
