ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Option Bulls Cheer New Highs

Call buyers have been active in Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ARIA) options pits in recent months, per data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Specifically, ARIA's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 14.51 across these exchanges ranks in the 86th annual percentile.

Echoing this call-skewed bias is ARIA's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.31, which rests lower than 61% of all comparable readings taken in the past year. In other words, short-term speculators are slightly more call-heavy than usual toward the security.

In the front-month series -- which expires at tonight's close -- peak call open interest is found at the April 9 strike, where 4,310 contracts are housed. Looking out to the May-dated series, call players have shown a preference for the 10 strike, where 16,190 contracts currently reside. According to the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX, the majority of the positions at both strikes have been bought to open in recent months. Of note, a move north of $10 would mark the equity's highest perch since October 2013.

Technically speaking, ARIA has been a standout, boasting a year-to-date lead of 31%. In fact, the shares hit an annual high of $9.23 earlier, after the firm unveiled updated clinical data on its alk+ non-small cell lung cancer treatment, brigatinib. However, the security has not been able to avoid broad-market headwinds, and was last seen off 1.1% at $9.