Here's some CLTR options comment. Note the comment that the stock is "hard to borrow" - on the other hand, given that the call premiums are comfortably higher than the put premiums, it must likely still be possible to borrow stock.
Headline: OPTIONS-Implied vols stay high in Coulter (NASDAQ:CLTR)
=============================================================== CHICAGO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Implied volatility stayed
perched at lofty levels Tuesday in options on Coulter
Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:CLTR), although volume remained skimpy.
Implied vols for the September 30 calls hung near 139
percent, with the puts less bid at 119 percent. That compares
with roughly 102 percent for calls and 129 percent for puts on
Friday, when the stock's one-month historical volatility was
around 82 percent.
"The stock is hard to borrow," said a market maker at the
Chicago Board Options Exchange of the reason for the high
volatility levels. "That's a function of the stock.... There's
no depth to it."
At 1242 CDT/1742 GMT, shares of California-based cancer
drug maker Coulter were off 11/16 at 30-5/16 on Nasdaq market
volume of 318,900.
"They are expecting approval of a new drug," added the CBOE
market maker. "It could go either way."
But options volume stayed small, with only 42 calls and 114
puts traded after midday.
In late July, Coulter and SmithKline Beecham Plc (ISEL:SB)
said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave priority review
status to Bexxar, their jointly developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma
treatment. The companies submitted the license application for
the cancer therapy on June 30.
Last Wednesday, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in a research
note reiterated its "strong buy" rating on Coulter and its
12-month price target of $47 per share.
"The note focused on confusion in the market" over the
filing and review process for Bexxar, a DB Alex. Brown analyst
said in an interview.
He said his firm expected that Coulter would receive notice
by the end of this month that its FDA filing was complete,
meaning that nothing was missing from the filing.
Once the company receives that notice, he said, the clock
would start on the actual review process, beginning with the
June 30 submission date.
"We are anticipating approval before year-end," the analyst
added.
chicago.derivatives.newsroom@reuters.com))
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service
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