Today’s tickers: BBY, DNDN, GLD, BAC, AET, BA & NBR

BBY – Best Buy Co., Inc. – Shares of the world’s largest electronics retailer rallied 2% to $41.25 during the trading session after receiving an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs Group where analysts increased BBY’s target share price to $47.00 from $44.00. Options traders employed a few different bullish tactics to position for continued upward movement in the price of the underlying stock through expiration in April. Plain-vanilla call buyers targeted the April $44 strike to purchase 5,100 calls for an average premium of $0.55 apiece. These investors stand ready to accrue profits if Best Buy’s share price increases 8% from the current value to exceed the effective breakeven point on the calls at $44.55 by expiration day. Another options player rolled a previously established long call position from the March contract to the April contract in order to extend bullish sentiment on the stock. The trader sold roughly 4,000 in-the-money calls at the March $41 strike for a premium of $0.33 apiece, and purchased about the same number of calls at the higher March $42 strike for an average premium of $1.18 each. In isolation, the net cost of the roll amounts to $0.85 per contract, thus positioning the investor to profit above the breakeven share price of $42.85. Options implied volatility is up approximately 5.5% as of 12:10 pm (ET) to stand at 33.68%.

DNDN – Dendreon Corp. – The biotechnology company received a repeat performance of bearish options activity observed during the previous trading session. Yesterday we reported a put butterfly spread in the April contract on Dendreon. Today the same spread doubled in size. Shares of the biotech firm slipped 1.15% during the current session to trade at $35.75. As was the case yesterday, the spread involved the purchase of 5,000 puts at the April $30 strike for an average premium of $0.94 each [wing 1] and the purchase of another 5,000 puts at the lower April $20 strike for $0.38 apiece [wing 2]. The body of the butterfly centered at the April $25 strike where the bearish investor shed 10,000 puts for a premium of $0.46 apiece. The net cost of the spread is $0.40 per contract, which is a full 10 pennies more expensive than the butterfly spread initiated yesterday. Maximum potential profits of $4.60 per contract are available to the pessimistic player if Dendreon’s…
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