The education company's stock had fallen from over $19 in April 2010 to a decade-plus low of $1.24 early last month. The stock popped after management predicted improvement when it reported earnings on Nov. 1, but shares have since drifted lower again and yesterday closed at $2.57, down 3.75 percent on the session.
The bulls are headed back to school at Corinthian Colleges.
In late-morning trading yesterday, OptionMonster's real-time systems detected a surge of activity in the February 2 calls, with about 3,000 purchased for 85 cents and 90 cents. Volume was more than 14 times open interest in the strike.
The contracts are in the money, which means that they will closely track movement in the underlying share price. Unlike out-of-the-money calls, they will keep some of their value as long as Corinthian's shares stay above $2.
Short interest ended last month at 28 percent of the float, which could also help drive upside in the stock.
Overall option volume in the stock was 10 times greater than average in the session, with calls outnumbering puts by 19 to 1.
— Russell has no position in COCO.
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