by Houghton and Atkeson 07/10/08
Options in Jack Henry (JKHY) traded 130 times the usual volume. With 90 minutes left in Wednesday's trading session, 2,000 JKHY Sept 20 Puts (JKQUD) hit the tape.
The open interest in all the puts is 509, so the alarm bells are ringing at Big Money Options. These investors could be protecting stock long stock, but whether or not it is directional, it is a bearish bet.
Jack Henry provides integrated computer systems and outsourced data processing to financial institutions. One might be betting that its customers are feeling the pinch in these especially difficult times for financial institutions and will be cutting back. Or even that some of their customers might be disappearing all together.
With the stock off 25% in the past two months, is there more weakness ahead?
