Sarah Wasserman (swasserman@sir-inc.com) Airgas, Inc. (ARG) announced this morning that it plans to appeal a court ruling that would allow its next annual shareholders meeting to be held in January. Airgas is currently fighting a $5.5 billion takeover bid by Air Products & Chemicals Inc. -- which could use the ruling to take control of ARG at the January meeting. As a result, the shares have added 2.7% percent so far today, sprinting to an annual high of $70.
Call players have responded enthusiastically to ARG's technical feat, with volume of 26,000 contracts traded so far today -- seven times the chemical manufacturer's expected daily call volume.
The October 70 call has been, by far, most popular today, with 10,477 contracts changing hands on this strike -- the majority of which traded at the ask price, indicating they were likely purchased. Since hitting the $70 level earlier today, ARG has since pulled back to around $69.72, making these 70-strike calls just barely out of the money.
Generally speaking, option players are highly bearish on the shares. ARG's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.78 reveals that puts far outweigh calls among options in the front three months. This ratio also ranks in the 96th annual percentile, indicating that short-term traders have been more skeptical toward the stock just 4% of the time during the past year.
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