A trader is betting that shares of Monster Worldwide will gain significantly by late summer.
The online employment company closed yesterday (Monday) up 0.37 percent to $16.17. The stock has been trading between $14 and $19 since early August.
The options have traded nearly seven times the normal levels, with the primary focus on the September 17.50 calls. Yesterday morning two large blocks of 3,500 and 3,631 of the calls were bought within seconds of each other for $1.50, according to OptionMonster's real-time systems. The action dwarfed both the open interest of 108 contracts and the average daily volume of just 5 calls at that strike.
For those calls to turn a profit, the stock would need to gain roughly 19 percent by the time the options expire on Sept. 17. Monster Worldwide is a name often mentioned in takeover rumors, which fueled call activity on March 1.
The operator of job site Monster.com gapped lower on Feb. 4 after the company announced that it would buy rival HotJobs from Yahoo for $225 million in cash. Monster Worldwide said that deal would be completed between June and October, barring any regulatory obstacles.
The company disclosed the takeover at the same time it released earnings results showing that it had swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $2.1 million. The company's next earnings release is scheduled for April 26.
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CNBC/OptionMonster Trading School:
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Pete Najarian is a professional investor, CNBC contributor, regular co-host of CNBC's "Fast Money" and co-founder of OptionMonster.com.
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