by David Russell
Options trading turned bullish in Lennar (LEN) today after Citigroup (C) predicted that the homebuilder will survive the housing bust.
Call volume surged to 12,428 contracts, more than triple the 20-day average, optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system shows. Most of the activity focused on the June 11 calls, which changed hands 7,354 times for $0.35 to $0.70 against open interest of just 626 contracts.
In the largest trade, an investor purchased 5,700 contracts for $0.60. Overall call volume in LEN exceeded puts more than 4 to 1, reflecting a generally bullish sentiment.
LEN is up 14.75 percent to $10.11 this afternoon. Citigroup upgraded the stock to "buy" with a $12 price target, saying a recent $400 million bond sale improved the company's liquidity and increased the chances of it surviving the housing crisis.
Separately, real-estate stocks rallied after the CEO of home-improvement chain Lowe's (LOW) said the market was beginning to bottom in some places.
