Bulls Target J&J for Historic Breakout

By David Russell, reporter at OptionMonster

NEW YORK -- A long-term investor expects Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to start making new highs.

The pharmaceutical and medical-supply giant has been trapped below $70 for most of the last decade, but Thursday OptionMonster's ttracking systems detected the purchase of block of 7,400 January 2015 80 calls for $1.35. Open interest in the strike was just five contracts at the beginning of the day, so this is clearly fresh buying.

Calls lock in the price investors must pay for the stock, so they can generate some nice leverage in the event of a rally. If it doesn't climb, however, these options will expire worthless.

Johnson & Johnson rose 0.44% to $68.90. It rallied sharply in June and has been consolidating in a range since then, holding support above its 2011 highs.

That could be leading some chart watchers to believe that the stock is ready to keep running for some time. The unusual thing about Thursday's option trade was their extremely long time horizon.

Overall option volume was low for the name at just 17,129 contracts, well below the 59,000 it sees in a typical session. But those 2015 calls really stood out, accounting for more than 40% of the total.

Russell has no positions in JNJ.

This commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet guest contributor program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of TheStreet or its management.