Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) is following the rest of the biotech sector lower today, dropping 13% to trade at $26.17. In fact, the equity has been placed on the short-sale restricted list. Traders have gone to the options pits to place bearish bets, with puts crossing at three times the normal intraday pace. It appears buy-to-open activity is taking place at the May 24 put. This means traders expect CLDX to fall at least another 8.3% before front-month options expire at the close on Friday, May 15.
Put buying was popular on CLDX even before today, though. The equity's 50-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.63 is only 2 percentage points from an annual bearish extreme. This means puts have been bought to open over calls at a faster-than-usual pace during the past 10 weeks.
However, analysts have a completely different take on the shares. All eight brokerage firms with coverage on the stock rate it a "strong buy."
It's rare to see Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) struggling like this. The shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months, and have outpaced the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by nearly 31 percentage points during the past three months. As such, it's possible some of the recent put buying could be a result of shareholders protecting paper profits against any unexpected pullbacks.