Puts Purchased on Health Management Associates (HMA)

Shares of Health Management Associates HMA are higher on the session by 1.17%, currently trading at $8.65. The stock has been moving largely higher over the past three months and is currently trading above the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Options traders are buying puts on the name today. A short while ago the November $10.00 put was purchased 1,027 times, on the offer, for $1.32 on open interest of 1,144 contracts. Overall put volume is now running at 4.33x the daily average with 100% of all puts traded being purchases on the offer. Health Management Associates, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, operate general acute care hospitals in non-urban communities. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 55 hospitals with a total of 8,418 beds in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.