By Mike Yamamoto
Coinstar (CSTR) has been on a wild ride in the last year--more than doubling in price and then cutting those gains in half--and option traders are betting that the stock is on another run higher.
A single block of 4,000 March 45 calls were bought at the ask price of $2.80, dwarfing the daily average of just 125 at that strike for the last month. The previous open interest was 1,131 contracts, so this was clearly a new position, according to optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker system.
CSTR closed Friday down 2.3 percent to $45.47 but has risen nearly 20 percent in the last three weeks. Traders may believe that the stock will fill a gap that opened twice in the last four months, roughly between $44 and $56 (see chart at right).
The Redbox DVD-rental kiosk operator missed earnings estimates earlier this month, but many investors are buying the stock in anticipation of its long-promised digital-streaming service.
That move would make it a direct competitor of Netflix, and investors hope that CSTR would see something similar to the phenomenal run that NFLX has experienced.
For the calls purchased Friday to turn a profit, Coinstar's stock must gain more than 5 percent before they expire on March 18. The company's next earnings report is scheduled for April 25.
(Chart courtesy of tradeMONSTER)
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