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UniPixel Inc (UNXL) soared out of the gate, but was last seen lower
UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL) has given up its early gains, and was last seen down 1.6% at $7.52, after the company purchased the assets of Atmel Corporation's (NASDAQ:ATML) XSense touch sensors unit. Meanwhile, UNXL's options pits are hopping, with contracts crossing at 12 times the usual intraday rate.
Generating the most attention by far is the January 2017 10-strike call. It appears the option is seeing a mix of buy- and sell-to-open activity. Call buyers are banking on UNXL venturing into double-digit territory -- something that hasn't been done in more than a year -- by January 2017 options expiration. Meanwhile, the sellers think shares of the conductive films maker will stay south of $10 throughout their lifetime.
Today's preference for calls over puts is business as usual for UNXL. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.27 indicates call open interest more than triples put open interest among options expiring in less than three months. What's more, this SOIR ranks in the bottom quartile of its annual range, hinting at a stronger-than-usual preference for short-term calls over puts.
Technically, UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL) has been on a roll. As alluded to, the equity spiked as high as $8.50 earlier this morning, and even after surrendering those gains, remains up more than 32% year-to-date. Even more impressive, UNXL has outperformed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 50 percentage points during the last 40 sessions.