Here is some untied, generally directional options activity that caught my eye during Thursday’s trading:
1. WMT – saw opening call buying, 10,000 of the WMT March 92.50 calls are bought up to 1.31 starting when the stock was $89.43, and finishing with a buy of 4600 when stock was 89.71. Options volume ran more than 4x average daily, with calls outnumbering puts 4 to 1. The stock is on a runaway breakout making new all time highs. From where I sit the move is preposterous, with the stock trading at 17x this year’s expected earnings that are only supposed to grow 5% on 3% sales growth, with a fairly paltry dividend yield of 2.1%. Valuation reaching 7 year highs. This is not one I think you chase low oil or not.
2. CLF – saw opening call buying,
3. BBY – saw a bullish roll where a trader sold 4800 Jan 36 calls at 3.
4. X – saw call buying yesterday with calls outnumbering puts more than 2 to 1, and total volume 1.5x average daily. When stock was 25.
5. VLO – with stock 49.
7. AZN – when stock was 69.43 there was a long dated opening call buyer. A trader paid 5.55 for 5,000 of the Jan 2016 70 calls.