Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CBI) Traders See More Downside

Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE:CBI) is down 11.4% this afternoon to hover near $34.10, after announcing a project to build a pair of nuclear plants in Georgia has been delayed 18 months. As a result, the shares skimmed a three-year low of $32.16 earlier, and found a place on the short-sale restricted list. Meanwhile, puts are flying off the shelves at 12 times the expected intraday pace.

Diving deeper, buy-to-open activity is detected at the March 25 and 30 puts, which are CBI's two most active options, with more than 15,000 total contracts on the tape. In other words, these speculators anticipate the shares will breach the respective strikes by the close on Friday, March 20, when the back-month options expire.

Elsewhere on the Street, short sellers are likely cheering Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V.'s (NYSE:CBI) retreat. During the most recent reporting period, short interest swelled 20%, and now makes up 7.3% of the equity's total float.