The bulls got off to a quick start in Ultra Petroleum on Friday morning.
OptionMonster’s tracking systems detected the purchase of more than 6,000 September 26 calls against previous positioning of 2,473 contracts. The first blocks priced for $0.25 shortly after the open, followed by continued buying throughout the session.
Calls lock in the price investors must pay to buy shares in the independent energy company, which is primarily focused on developing areas in the Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming. Those options could generate some nice leverage if the stock rallies, but they will expire worthless if it doesn’t.
Ultra Petroleum shares declined 1.01 percent to $22.62 on Friday. Energy has been a theme for a while and continues to be a sector in focus for unusual activity, despite slowing down a little in the last week.
Option volume in the name was almost twice the daily average. There were more than 9,500 total calls, versus barely 2,000 puts , so it was definitely a bullish session.
—By CNBC Contributor Pete Najarian
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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. Najarian owns UPL calls.
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