Today’s tickers: URBN, STT & SNDK
URBN – Urban Outfitters, Inc. – Shares in Urban Outfitters gained the most in the S&P 500 Index on Tuesday morning after the operator of retail brands Free People, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and sales. The positive earnings surprise and an upgrade to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at William Blair & Co. sparked a more than 20% rally in the price of the underlying at the open to a new 52-week high of $37.65. Options traders positioning for further upside in the near term picked up out-of-the-money call options in the first hour of the session. The front month options are the most actively traded contracts on Urban at present. Volume is heaviest in the Sep. $37 strike call, where more than 1,700 lots changed hands against open interest of just 72 contracts. Buyers in the early going paid an average premium of $1.15 per contract for nearly 500 hundred of the $37 strike call options, while the bulk of the volume traded to the middle of the market. Several hundred upside call options were also purchased at the Sep. $38, $39 and $40 strikes, indicating some strategists are positioning for shares in the specialty retailer to extend gains during the next four weeks to expiration. Traders paid an average premium of $0.20 per contract for around 400 of the Sep. $40 strike calls. The bullish stance may pay off at expiration in the event URBN shares surge 7% over today’s high of $37.65 to top the average breakeven point at $40.20, the highest level for the stock since April 2010. All told, more than 20,000 options are in play on Urban Outfitters as of 11:45 a.m. New York time, roughly five times the stock’s average daily options volume of 4,060 contracts.
STT – State Street Corp. – The provider of investment management services popped up on our scanners early in the trading session after…
