Shares of Cigna Corp (NYSE: CI, Stock Forum) were up more than 2% yesterday to $21.30. The company is set to announce earnings before the market opens on Thursday April 30, and at least one investor is expressing a bullish view buying calls looking for a potential bump in the stock.
Looking at the May 25 calls, we find that more than 10,000 traded in the first hour of trading yesterday. Open interest in these calls was 2607 according to the Sidewinder report at www.ONN.tv. As the day wore on, the volume in the calls reached more than 14,000. What is most noteworthy about this volume is that most of the activity is on the buy side, meaning there are more buyers of these calls than sellers.
As we mentioned, this buying activity could be a bet by an investor that shares of CI will continue to run if the earnings announcement has positive data. Another thing that might be driving the call buying is continued speculation that Aetna (NYSE: AET, Stock Forum) might be interested in buying CI. There are various unconfirmed rumors circulating that AET might be interested in paying $32 for CI.
The May 25 call options traded this morning for around 70 cents with the stock near $21.20. At that price, the buyer needs the stock to be above $25.50 to be in the money at expiration, another 20% rally on top of the 64% move since its low close on March 5 of $12.87. CI has not traded above $25 since October.
Call buying like this does not mean that investors should run out and buy shares. But it is worth noting that there are potentially two catalysts to make the stock jump, that being a potential takeover, or a positive earnings announcement.