American Capital Strategies is starting to see some upside options activity as the stock digs its way out of the ashes.
Traders were focused on the June 5 options, where more than 9,000 calls changed hands Friday for $0.15 and $0.20, according to optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system. The turnover dwarfed the average daily volume of just 409 calls at that strike and was more than double the open interest of under 4,000 contracts.
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American Capital closed Friday down 6.5 percent in the regular session and dropped another 1.3 percent in after-hours trading to an even $3. The shares have been making their way back up after being beaten down to under $1 in March but are still only a fraction of their 52-week high of $33.56.
The options activity suggests that traders are hoping that the stock will reach $5 by the end of the third Friday in June, when that month's contracts expire. The investment firm, which specializes in private equity acquisitions, was upgraded on May 7 to "market perform" by Keefe Bruyette after the company reported quarterly earnings that missed analysts' estimates.
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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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