An order from the world’s largest retailer energized shares in Plug Power Inc. (Ticker: PLUG) on Wednesday, sending the stock up nearly 20% to $4.64 during the first half of the trading session on heavy volume. The company confirmed in a press release today that it received a multi-site GenKey purchase order from Walmart (Ticker: WMT) to power electric lift truck fleets at six North America distribution centers. Shares in PLUG are up a whopping 3,700% since this time last year.
Options volume on PLUG is more than two times the stock’s average daily volume as of midday in New York, with upwards of 19,000 contracts in play versus an average reading of roughly 8,100 contracts. Trading in calls on Plug Power is outpacing that in puts, with the call/put ratio hovering near 6.5 as of the time of this writing.
Some traders appear to be looking out to options expiring in January of 2015 to position for the price of the underlying to extend its run. Roughly 3,200 of the Jan’15 5.0 strike calls changed hands this morning against open interest of just 209 contracts, with time and sales suggesting much of the volume was purchased at a premium of $1.35 each. The bullish trade makes money if shares in Plug Power rally another 36% over today’s high of $4.64 to exceed the effective breakeven point at $6.35 by January expiration. Shares in PLUG last traded above $6.35 back in April of 2011.
