Trading in Electronic Arts’ Calls Accelerates Ahead of Earnings

Today’s tickers: ERTS, USO, ARMH, BK, JPM, GG, XRT, DF, CAH & PCLN ERTS - Electronic Arts, Inc. – Call activity on the video game publisher is booming in late afternoon trading ahead of Electronic Arts’ fourth-quarter earnings announcement. Shares of the underlying stock are up 3.3% at $18.85 with 40 minutes remaining in the session. Analysts, on average, anticipate earnings of $0.05 per share on revenue of $835.4 million. Bullish options investors are scrambling to position for Electronic Arts’ share price to rally sharply should the firm’s earnings report beat average expectations. The majority of the call activity on the stock today is centered in the June contract where trading patterns look to be mimicking the parameters of a plain-vanilla debit call spread strategy. Approximately 15,000 calls were likely purchased for an average premium of $0.94 apiece at the June $20 strike. Meanwhile, traders sold about 15,000 calls at the higher June $22 strike for an average premium of $0.36 each. Investors employing this strategy reduce the net cost of buying the closer-to-the-money call options at the June $20 strike price to an average of $0.58 per contract. Maximum potential profits available to pseudo-call spreading traders amounts to $1.42 per contract should shares of the underlying stock surge 16.7% to surpass the $22.00-level by June expiration. Options implied volatility is up 6.9% to 57.12% ahead of the earnings announcement. USO - United States Oil Fund LP – Shares of the U.S. Oil Fund are currently trading 1.25% lower on the day at $36.77. The USO’s share price of $36.77 is 12.2% below the May high of $41.90 attained back on May 3, 2010. One options investor is positioning for continued bearish movement in the price of the underlying fund through June expiration. The trader purchased a debit put spread, buying 3,000 lots at the June $36 strike for an average premium of $1.27 each, and selling the same number of contracts at the lower June $33 strike for $0.47 apiece. Net premium paid for the pessimistic play amounts to $0.80 per contract. The trader starts to make money if USO shares slip beneath the effective breakeven price of $35.20 by expiration day. Maximum potential profits of $2.20 per contract accumulate for the put-spreader if shares slump 10.25% beneath the current value to breach the $33.00-level by June expiration. ARMH - ARM Holdings PLC – Optimistic options players initiated debit call spreads on the semiconductor company…
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