Today’s tickers: LNKD, DLTR & PZZA
LNKD - LinkedIn Corp. – Shares in the online professional networking company are soaring today, up as much as 7.0% to touch a record-high of $168.82 during the first half of the trading session on positive analyst comments. The price target on LinkedIn was raised to $200.00 from $160.00 at Evercore this morning, and the stock was rated new ‘Buy’ with a 12-month target price of $195.00 at Wunderlich Securities. LNKD shares, up nearly 40% in the past two weeks alone, have rallied more than 95% since this time last year. Options traders positioning for shares in the name to move higher this week snapped up in- and out-of-the-money weekly calls on the stock today. Traders looked to the Mar. 01 ’13 $160, $165 and $170 strikes, driving volume at each strike well above open interest levels. The $165 and $170 strike calls are the most active by volume, with upwards of 2,300 contracts in play at each as of 11:25 a.m. ET. Much of the volume appears to have been purchased at average premiums of $1.98 and $1.10 apiece, respectively. Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 call options have changed hands at the higher Mar. 01 ’13 $175 strike versus open interest of 250 contracts. Trading in the $175 calls is mixed, with roughly equal numbers of contracts purchased and sold. Buyers of around 350 of the $175 strike calls paid an average premium of $0.34 apiece in the early going, and may profit at expiration this week should shares in LNKD rally another 4.0% over today’s record high of $168.82 to surpass the average breakeven point at $175.34.
DLTR - Dollar Tree, Inc. – Upside calls purchased on Tuesday ahead of Dollar Tree’s fourth-quarter earnings report this morning landed one or more traders substantial overnight paper profits, with shares in Dollar Tree spiking nearly 14% to an intraday high of $46.71 on Wednesday morning. The largest increase in open interest on Dollar Tree overnight was in the Mar. $42.5 strike calls; a review…
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