Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. (Ticker: DNKN) put options are active on Friday as shares slip on a downgrade to “Neutral” from “Buy” (with a 12-month target price of $45.00) at Janney Montgomery, and perhaps ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings report next Thursday. Shares in the name are down 1.2% just before midday to stand at $43.36 and off the lows of the session. The stock has dropped nearly 20% since reaching a 52-week high of $53.05 in March.
The most traded contracts on DNKN today are the Aug 40.0 strike put options, with nearly 5,700 contracts in play against open interest of just 452 contracts. Most of the volume appears to have been purchased in the first hour of the trading session at a premium of $0.52 per contract, perhaps by an investor seeking to hedge a long position in the shares or as a means to speculate on bearish price action following the company’s earnings release next week. The put options may be profitable at expiration if shares in the operator of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins restaurants drop roughly 9.0% from the current price of $43.36.
