Vericel Corp's (VCEL) heart failure treatment met its main goals in a Phase 2 study
Cellular therapy stock Vericel Corp (NASDAQ:VCEL) exploded for an 86.3% gain on Thursday, with trading volume reaching an annual high, after the company announced that its heart failure treatment candidate met its main goals in a Phase 2 study. VCEL plans to give more information about the trial on Monday, April 4. The shares have added another 5.8% today to trade at $4.18, and earlier hit an annual high of $5.18. In the meantime, the stock has seen a rare dose of option trading.
There's usually next to no activity in VCEL's option pits, but that's changed over the past two days. Yesterday, over 1,000 calls crossed, with much of the activity occurring at the March 5 call -- where it's likely long positions were added. Another 1,000 calls have been traded in today's session, and it looks like traders may have liquidated their VCEL March 5 calls, taking profits on the earlier move above $5.
Despite the positive development, many speculators may be hesitant to place bullish bets on Vericel Corp (NASDAQ:VCEL), given its technical track record. The 10-year chart below should tell the whole story:
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