Today’s tickers: DB, ATHN & LSI
DB – Deutsche Bank AG – Heavy trading traffic in Deutsche Bank put options this morning, one week before the investment banking firm is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings, may mean some traders are bracing for a pullback. Shares in DB are currently up 0.40% to stand at $43.80 as of 12:40 p.m. in New York. The single-largest put trade on the stock today was the purchase of 9,500 puts at the April $40 strike for a premium of $2.45 each. Though the put options were not marked as a spread against stock, it is possible the put buyer seeks to protect the value of shares already in his or her portfolio. Alternatively, the investor may be taking an outright bearish stance on DB over the next three months. In the latter scenario, the trader may profit if Deutsche Bank’s shares plunge 14.3% to breach the effective breakeven point at $37.55 at April expiration. Meanwhile, the purchase of a 2,000-lot Mar. $35/$45 put spread at a net premium of $2.75 per contract yields profits – or downside protection – to its owner in the event of a 3.5% decline below the breakeven share price of $42.25. Traders populating DB options are overwhelmingly favoring puts over calls ahead of earnings, with today’s put-call ratio hovering just below 15.0 and overall put-call interest greater than 1.4.
ATHN – athenahealth, Inc. – One cautiously optimistic investor appears to have purchased a sizable position in athenahealth put options this morning in order to hedge a long position in the stock. Shares in the provider of cloud-based business services for physician practices rose 1.05% to $57.91 this afternoon, extending gains realized earlier in the week on the heels of a new…
