Frontier Oil Options Grab Traders' Attention

Pete Najarian, co-founder of OptionMonster.

Frontier Oil(FTO Quote) is seeing some interesting options activity after recently receiving some votes of confidence from analysts.

The largest volume in FTO options began in the March calls this morning, but activity was quickly building in the April 17.50 calls trading for $0.35 and $0.40, according to OptionMonster's tracking systems. The relatively small size of the contracts are of some concern, however, as they don't appear to reflect much institutional trading.

FTO is up 2.33% in midday trading to $14.50, nearly double its November lows but still less than half of its 52-week high of $33.

The oil refining company has a strong balance sheet and appears positioned well to outperform. On March 3 Barclays(BCS Quote) recently raised its price target to $13 for Frontier, and an analyst from Macquarie Research said he expected FTO to perform better than its peers.