Today’s tickers: CZR, SD & LUV
CZR - Caesars Entertainment Corp. – Shares in the casino entertainment company are soaring on Friday, up nearly 30% at $12.88as of 11:40 a.m. in New York trading, on reports that Las Vegas strip casino gambling revenue rose 13.49% in December. The operator of Caesars Palace, Harrah’s and other casino brands reports fourth-quarter earnings at the end of February. Options traders who placed bullish bets on the stock ahead of Friday’s big rally are seeing sizable overnight paper profits on their positions. The largest increase in call open interest yesterday was in the Mar. $10 strike call options. Time and sales data from Thursday suggests some 1,300 of the $10 strike calls were purchased yesterday for an average premium of $0.39 apiece. The last traded price on these contracts just prior to midday on the East Coast is $3.30 each, an eight-fold increase in value overnight. Bullish bets on Caesars were also established at the June $10 strike yesterday, with around 260 of those contracts purchased at a premium of $0.80 apiece. Premium to buy the June $10 strike call options today has jumped to $3.90 per contract of 11:55 a.m. ET on Friday. Overall options volume on CZR is upsharply versus the stocks average daily level, with upwards of 8,700 calls and puts in play on the stock compared to average volume of 819 contracts.
SD - SandRidge Energy, Inc. – A sizable bearish options trade initiated on SandRidge Energy this morning looks for shares in the oil and natural gas company to face limited declines during the first half of the 2012. The stock today trades down 1.2% on the session at $5.87 as of 11:30 a.m. ET. SandRidge reports fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 results after the closing bell on February 28th. The largest transaction in SD options today was the purchased of 12,500 in-the-money puts at the June $6.0 strike at a premium of $1.03 apiece, spread against the sale of 25,000 puts at the lower June $5.0 strike…
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