How bulls are playing Nuance
The bulls hope Nuance Communications will talk their language when earnings come out later this month.
optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker system detected heavy call buying in the maker of voice-recognition software on Friday. The first large blocks hit in the December 17s for $0.40 to $0.50. Some 4,250 traded at more than 9 times the previous open interest, showing that new money was put to work.
Minutes later, there was more buying in the November 15 calls for $0.55 to $0.70. Volume approached 3,600, inching above previous positioning of 2,827 contracts at that strike.
NUAN rose 4.05 percent to $15.43 on Friday. Investors will monitor the Nov. 24 quarterly report for evidence the management is successfully transitioning to a subscription-based revenue model. If it fails to do so, a selloff could result.
Long calls help manage that risk because they only confer the right to buy stock at a given level. That way, investors must only risk the low premiums rather than the full price of the shares. (See our Education section.)
Total option volume was triple the daily average, with calls outnumbering puts by 26 to 1. Carl Icahn is also a major holder in the name.
(A version of this post appeared on InsideOptions Pro on Friday.)
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