VIVUS Options Value: $24 in April, $28 in June (VVUS)

VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is seeing some continued interest after Thursday’s massive run higher.  We have seen shares trade 16 million shares to be up 12% at $20.95 and the high today was $21.19.  Thursday’s high was $21.44 and the market cap is now $1.88 billion.  The real activity is out in the options, where traders are looking at CALL options that imply upside to $24.00 over the next 60 days or even $28.00 out to June.

The April 20, 2012 $20.00 CALLS have traded 4,476 contracts today against a prior open interest of 3,248 contracts.  The last trade of $4.10 basically puts the breakeven at $24.10.

Then there have been in the June 2012 expirations a total of 1,954 contracts in the $25.00 CALLS versus a previous open interest of 1,263 contracts.  With a last price of $3.10, that stock has to rise to above $28.10 for intrinsic positive value to be there for the buyers of those contracts.

JON C. OGG