Short-Term Traders Descend On Intrexon Corporation (XON)

Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) has shot 5.3% higher to $45.26, after the company announced a collaboration with Merck Serono -- the biopharmaceutical business of Germany's Merck KGaA* -- to develop and commercialize various cancer therapies. As such, XON options are flying off the shelves at 10 times the expected intraday pace.

Most active is the April 40 call. It appears traders are both buying to open and selling to close positions here.

Longer term, XON has advanced upwards of 64% on a year-to-date basis. In fact, during the past 60 sessions, the stock has outperformed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by a brow-raising 56 percentage points.

As such, call buying has been in vogue. Intrexon Corp's (NYSE:XON) 10-day call/put volume ratio across the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is 13.91 -- with nearly 14 calls bought to open for every put during the past two weeks. Historically speaking, this ratio outstrips more than three-quarters of all comparable readings from the previous year.

*The original text of this post described Merck Serono as a unit of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK). We regret the error.