Today’s tickers: COCO, IPXL & BEN
COCO - Corinthian Colleges, Inc. – Shares in the for-profit provider of post-secondary, career-oriented education programs increased as much as 44.2% to an intraday high of $4.37 at the start of the session after the Company’s full-year 2012 earnings forecast of $0.30 a share beat average analyst expectations of $0.24 a share. The stock is off earlier post-earnings report highs, but continues to trade up 30.0% on the day at $3.93 as of 12:30 p.m. in New York. Options traders positioning for shares in Corinthian Colleges to extend gains in the near term purchased more than 2,800 calls at the Feb. $4.0 strike for an average premium of $0.27 apiece. Investors long the calls may profit at February expiration in the event that COCO’s shares rally 8.7% over the current price of $3.93 to exceed the average breakeven point at $4.27. Bullish call buying spread to the Mar. $4.0 strike, where around 375 contracts were purchased for an average premium of $0.38 each.
IPXL - Impax Laboratories, Inc. – The specialty pharmaceutical company popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this morning after one strategist took a large stake in front-month calls. Shares in Impax Laboratories surged 10.85% to $20.93 today on news Impax Pharmaceuticals, the branded drugs unit of Hayward, California-based Impax Laboratories, Inc., licensed exclusive U.S. commercial rights to Zomig® from AstraZeneca. Zomig is a drug used to treat acute migraine headaches with or without aura. The options trader responsible for the single largest transaction in IPXL options today appears to have purchased 2,000 calls at the Feb. $20 strike for an average premium of $0.80 per contract. The size of the position is noteworthy relative to overall open interest of…
