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BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) hit an all-time high today
A price-target hike at Deutsche Bank sent BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) to an all-time high of $133.54 this morning. At last check, the equity was 13.6% higher at $131.24, after the brokerage firm boosted its price target to $140 from $90, saying the company could potentially be bought out for between $194-$271 per share, pending results from various drug trials. As such, options volume has exploded, with the contracts crossing at seven times what's normally seen at this point in the day.
Among BMRN's most popular contracts today is the May 115 put, with signs pointing to buy-to-open activity. Apparently, these speculators haven't been persuaded by this morning's developments, as they're placing bets on the shares to fall below $115 by the close on Friday, May 15, when the series expires.
Today's put buying is just more of the same from BMRN's speculators. During the past two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the stock has accumulated a put/call volume ratio of 0.32, which ranks in the 68th percentile of its annual range. In other words, put buying has seen a slight uptick versus call buying of late.
Elsewhere, Deutsche Bank isn't the only brokerage firm with high hopes for the equity. Specifically, 13 of 16 analysts covering the stock say it's a "buy" or better.
On the charts, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) has been tearing it up. It's nearly doubled in value over the past 52 weeks, and its 10-week moving average acted as support in the latter half of 2014 and continues to do so into 2015.