Puts Purchased on Lorillard (LO)

Shares of Lorillard Inc. LO are lower on the session by 1.08%, currently trading at $73.95. The stock has been moving largely sideways for the past six months, but has come under selling pressure as of late. Options traders are purchasing puts on the name today. The July $72.50 put was purchased 2,500 times, on the offer, on open interest of 5,753 contracts. It is possible that this is a closing transaction on short puts. Put volume is now running at 2.71x the daily average. Lorillard, Inc. is a manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States. Newport is the company's menthol flavored premium cigarette brand. As of December 31, 2009, the Newport brand accounted for approximately 91.5% of the company's sales revenue.