Wary Options Players Pick Up Franklin Resources Puts

Today’s tickers: BEN, NVDA, XL & BLL BEN  - Franklin Resources, Inc. –  Put options on the provider of investment management and related services through subsidiaries Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series, Bissett, Fiduciary and Darby, are more active than usual this morning. It looks like some traders are taking a cautious stance on the stock, and perhaps with good reason. On May 2 the stock managed to rally to within $0.20 of its February 16 52-week high of $130.97, but between those two dates, BEN’s shares dropped nearly 13.5% to as low as $113.34 on March 15. Imagine put buyers are long the stock. Longs could be concerned about Franklin Resources’ failure to hit a higher-high recently, but not so worried that they’re ready to ditch the stock all together. Holding put options on BEN serves to alleviate fears of a pullback and allows traders to benefit in the event that the stock pushes higher over the next couple of months. BEN’s shares are currently down 0.60% to stand at $126.35 as of 11:40am in New York. Investors traded more than 3,600 puts at the June $120 strike on open interest of 913 contracts. It looks like the majority of the puts were purchased today for an average premium of $2.28 a-pop. Put buyers profit, or realize downside protection, should BEN’s shares plunge 6.8% from the current price of $126.35 to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $117.72 by expiration day next month. An alternative interpretation of the put activity on BEN is that investors are placing outright bearish bets on the stock. Traders employing this type of strategy are looking to profit from a sharp decline in the price of the underlying by expiration. The rise in demand for put options on Franklin Resources helped lift the overall reading of options implied volatility on the stock 3.2% to 22.35% in early-afternoon trade.…