Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc (FURX) is a drug development company with several programs in development. The company’s stock is currently trading around $111.95 and is up more than 140% in today’s trading session. The stock has more than doubled today on news that two drugs they had in Phase III trials came in line with both FDA and EMA guidelines. This move in the stock was telegraphed somewhat by an unusual options trade we flagged on January 22nd. On Jan 22nd we flagged a buyer of 1,000 Feb 50 Calls for $7.50. This trader had to lay out $750,000 in capital to put this trade on. Today these calls are trading around $65.00. This means that this trader profited over $5.7 million on this trade. This is a huge return and a shining example of how unusual option activity can help us find homeruns like this. We also flagged activity in FURX back in December and featured it in our Covered Call Newsletter when stock was trading near $41.00. That trade netted an annualized return of 154%. This trade was also based on unusual option activity.
