At first glance, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY) may seem like an awfully risky wager. On Friday, LLY stock fell 2.47%, bringing its year-to-date performance to only 0.45% above parity. For context, the benchmark S&P 500 index — which isn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard — has gained nearly 5% during the same period. As such, the soft return looks rather conspicuous.
Further, LLY stock represented one of the entries in Barchart’s screener for unusual stock options volume — but not necessarily for good reasons. Following Friday’s closing bell, total options volume reached 54,014 contracts, representing a 29.74% lift over the trailing one-month average. Breaking down the details, call volume was 29,060 contracts while put volume stood at 24,954.
