IB Options Brief: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR)

Posted September 10th, 2012 by Caitlin Duffy in Unusual Activity

GMCR – Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.

Weekly options on the specialty coffee company and provider of Keurig single-cup brewing systems are active this morning with shares in Green Mountain up nearly 10% in the first half of the session to touch $30.49, the highest the shares have traded since May. Green Mountain’s shares are moving higher for a third consecutive session, having rallied sharply last week, and some options traders appear to be positioning for the price of the underlying to extend gains this week.

Bullish bets are on the rise at the Sep. 14 ’12 $29 and $30 strikes, the two highest strike prices currently available in GMCR weekly options. Traders exchanged upwards of 1,100 in-the-money calls at the $29 strike, and appear to have purchased most of the volume for an average premium of $1.28 apiece.

Weekly call volume is heaviest up at the $30 strike where more than 2,200 lots changed hands against open interest of 817 contracts. It looks like most of the $30 calls were purchased this morning for an average premium of $0.91 each. Traders long the $30 calls may profit at expiration in the event Green Mountain’s shares settle above the average breakeven price of $30.91.

Shares in the seller of K-cups are still down nearly 75% since this time last year. Overall options volume on GMCR is greater than usual, with 60,000 contracts in play as of midday in New York versus the stock’s average daily options volume of around 18,500 contracts.

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