Shares in Stryker Corp. (Ticker: SYK) popped 6.0% this week to as high as $85.62 this morning after a report in the Financial Times earlier in the week said the company may be planning to make a bid for orthopaedics company, Smith & Nephew Plc. The company has since said it does not plan to make an offer for Smith & Nephew, but shares remain elevated and at their highest level in roughly a decade. Upside call buying across several expiries on Stryker caught our eye this morning. It looks like some options traders are positioning for shares in the name to continue to push to the upside during the back half of 2014.
Traders appear to have purchased almost 300 of the Jul 90.0 calls at a premium of $0.50 each. These contracts may be profitable at July expiration in the event that SYK shares rally another 6.0% over the current level to exceed the effective breakeven point at $90.50. Meanwhile, the 87.5 strike calls expiring in September and January 2015 were the most traded contracts on Friday morning. It looks like traders shelled out $2.05 in premium to buy more than 800 of the Sep 87.5 strike calls and paid around $3.20 per contract for 1,000 of the Jan ’15 87.5 strike calls.
Shares in Stryker are off their highest level of the session, trading up 0.75% at $84.55 as of 11:30 a.m. ET. Shares may have received a lift from a note out of Deutsche Bank about a Stryker bid for Smith & Nephew. Deutsche Bank has a ‘Buy’ rating on Stryker and a $90.00 price target.
