The deal is worth roughly $1.3 billion
Biotech stock Verve Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VERV) is up 75.3% to trade at $10.99 at last check amid news that peer Eli Lilly (LLY) will buy the company for $10.50 per share, or roughly $1.3 billion. The pair have already been partnering on several drugs, with the move allowing Eli Lilly to push further into gene editing.
VERV is now trading at its highest level since April 2024, and sports an 11.2% year-to-date lead. The shares have been using the $6 region and 100-day moving average as support in recent weeks -- both a site of former resistance earlier this year.
Shorts have been crowding the stock, with short interest up 7.2% in the most recent reporting period, and now accounting for a whopping 23.5% of the total available float. At VERV's average pace of daily trading, it would take shorts nearly six days to buy back their bearish bets.
Short-term options traders have been extremely bullish toward the equity. This is per VERV's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.10, which ranks in the 5th percentile of annual readings.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 11,000 puts and 7,164 calls have crossed the tape, which is 267 times the volume typically seen at this point. The most active contract by far is the November 10 put, where positions are being opened.