BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) option players are eyeing double-digit territory
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is up 0.7% at $9.78, even after Xiaomi President Bin Lin reportedly denied recent rumors that the Chinese firm is looking to acquire BBRY. That hasn't stopped options traders, though, with short-term bulls rolling the dice on double-digit territory for BBRY.
Calls are crossing at twice the average intraday pace, and have outnumbered puts by a margin of more than 6-to-1. Most popular are the weekly 6/5 and June 10-strike calls, which have seen apparent buy-to-open activity. By purchasing the calls to open, the buyers expect BBRY to surge north of $10 by the options' respective expiration dates of Friday, June 5, and Friday, June 19.
Digging deeper, the weekly calls -- which expire at the close tomorrow -- are being picked up at a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of $0.08, meaning the buyers will begin to profit if BBRY topples $10.08 (strike plus VWAP) within the options' lifetime. Because of their added time value, the VWAP of the June 10 calls is $0.29, making breakeven $10.29.
What's more, near-term traders are picking up BBRY options at a historical discount. The equity's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 36% stands higher than just 3% of all other readings from the past year, signaling that BBRY's short-term contracts are attractively priced, relatively speaking.
Outside of the options pits, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) could benefit from a mass exodus of shorts, should the shares pick up steam. Short interest accounts for 18.1% of the stock's total available float, representing two weeks' worth of pent-up buying demand, at the equity's average pace of trading.