Bearish Players Eye Men’s Wearhouse Put Options Ahead of Earnings

Today’s tickers: MW, ABV, ANR & ODP MW  - The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. –  Investors are posturing in Men’s Wearhouse put options this afternoon ahead of the retailer’s first-quarter earnings report after the final bell. Shares in the Houston, TX-based company are well off their lows of the session, but still trade 0.65% lower today at $30.61 as of 1:35pm on the East Coast. One options strategist donned a debit put spread in the June contract to position for the price of the underlying shares to fall. The trader picked up 1,500 puts at the June $30 strike for a premium of $1.25 each, and sold the same number of puts at the lower June $28 strike at a premium of $0.47 a-pop. Net premium paid to initiate the spread amounts to $0.78 per contract. The investor profits if shares in Men’s Wearhouse drop 4.5% post-earnings to breach the effective breakeven price of $29.22. Maximum potential profits of $1.22 per contract pad the investor’s wallet in the event that MW’s shares plunge 8.5% in the next week and a half to trade below $28.00 at June expiration. Options implied volatility on the clothing company currently stands 7.7% higher on the session at 50.64%. Investors have exchanged a total of 6,295 call and put options on the stock as of 1:40pm, which is substantial relative to MW’s total open interest of 11,578 contracts. Pre earnings report options players are exchanging more than 3.5 put options on the stock for each single call option on the retailer this afternoon. ABV  - AmBev –  Shares in AmBev, a subsidiary of global brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev, rose nearly 1.1% at the start of the trading session to $31.94. Activity in AmBev call options this morning suggests one strategist expects shares in the biggest brewery in…