LinkedIn Corporation (LNKD) is an online network for professionals with over 300 million users in countries around the world. The company’s stock is currently trading around $250 in a 52 week range of $136.02-$276.18. The stock has been relatively strong this year with shares rallying more than 9% year to date. The stock is little changed today despite the announcement the firm would be undertaking its largest acquisition ever.
LNKD announced that they will be acquiring online education company Lynda.com for cash and stock in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. This acquisition should add revenue growth to LNKD as Lynda.com is a profitable company. Lynda.com offers its customer’s web based access to learning programs on a wide number of topics. The company sells these services via a subscription based model but also offers larger enterprise solutions to larger private and government organizations.
There are clear synergies between the two companies as LNKD will now be able to direct users to educational courses that will help them develop the skills needed for specific jobs. With more and more money flowing into the online education space how can a trader use options to bet on further growth for LNKD on the back of this acquisition? LNKD is a high priced stock so a trader would have to invest a large amount of capital to own the underlying stock. However, they can use a stock replacement strategy to replicate the P/L profile of the stock while only investing a fraction of the capital.
Trade: Buying the LNKD Aug 220 Calls for $41.00
Risk: $4100 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Breakeven: $261.00
This gives a trader a breakeven higher than the stock’s current price but with these calls trading with a 75 delta they will behave very much like the underlying stock.