Taubman Centers Breaks Out; Protection Purchased (TCO)

Shares of Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO are higher on the session by 2.91%, currently trading at $44.74. The stock has been moving largely higher over the past two months and is breaking out today, above the key resistance level of $44.00. If the stock can move above $45.00, there is a lot more upside in this name. Options traders are buying protection on the name today; this may be as a hedge to short shares. The December $45 put was purchased 1,000 times (single block), on the offer, for $5.20 earlier in the session. Open interest on the strike was only 53 contracts; this signals new positioning on the name. Put volume is now running at 28.6x the daily average. Taubman Centers, Inc. operates as a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The Taubman Realty Group Limited Partnership is a majority-owned partnership subsidiary of TCO, which owns direct or indirect interests in all of the company's real estate properties. The company owns, leases, develops, acquires, disposes of and operates regional and super-regional shopping centers. Its portfolio, as of December 31, 2009, included 23 owned urban and suburban regional and super-regional shopping centers in 10 states