Drug Data Has Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) Bulls Active

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) is popping after a successful study of its lung cancer treatment, Opdivo. At last check, shares of the drugmaker were up 3.5% at $65.87, bringing their year-to-date advance north of 11%. Not surprisingly, bullish traders are rushing to the stock's options pits.

Digging deeper, intraday call volume on BMY is at eight times the norm. By the numbers, 23,000 calls are on the tape, versus fewer than 4,000 puts. Among the most popular strikes is the at-the-money April 66 call, where buy-to-open activity is detected. In short, these call buyers anticipate BMY will topple $66 by tonight's close, when the front-month options expire.

Broadly speaking, speculators have been picking up BMY calls at a breakneck pace. During the last two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the equity has seen nearly 14 calls bought to open for every put. The resultant call/put volume ratio of 13.64 rests above all comparable readings taken in the previous year.

Echoing this, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) has a Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.41, with call open interest more than doubling put open interest among short-term strikes. What's more, this SOIR ranks in the call-skewed 15th percentile of its annual range.