Why Are Options Traders Gobbling Up This Grocery Stock?

Supervalu has been outperforming other grocery stocks recently, and now at least one investor is looking to get long before the next earnings report.

Volume in the January 17.50 calls rose to 4,200 against open interest of 3,743 contracts, according to OptionMonster's tracking programs. Most of the trades priced at $0.55 — and purchases dominated the activity.

___________________________
CNBC/OptionMonster Trading School:

___________________________

SVU stock fell 1.78 percent to $14.93 in morning trading. The stock is up 16 percent in the last three months, compared with a 6.71 percent drop by Kroger and a 3.6 percent decline for Safeway over the same period.

SVU needs to rally 21 percent by expiration for the calls purchased today to turn a profit. The company, still laden with debt from its purchase of Albertsons locations in 2006, has been climbing despite lowering its profit forecast on July 28. The next earnings report is expected to come out about Oct. 20.

Overall options activity in the name was five times greater than average, with calls outnumbering puts by more than 70 to 1.

___________________________

___________________________

David Russell is a reporter and writer for OptionMonster.

___________________________

Disclaimer