Allscripts call-option trades jump to record

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. call-option trading jumped as investors increased wagers that the health-care software maker will rise after reporting quarterly results on Nov. 8.

Volume for calls to buy shares rose to a record as more than 31,000 of those options changed hands, 95 times the four- week average and seven times the number of puts to sell. Allscripts rose 1.3 percent to $19.44 at 2:22 p.m. in New York. The stock has rallied 23 percent from its 2010 low on July 2.

“People are taking a shot on the earnings,” said Patrick Mortimer, director of options trading at Pipeline Trading Systems LLC in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Less than 1 percent of the company's outstanding shares were sold short as of Nov. 3, the lowest amount since at least June 2006 and down from the 2010 high of 14 percent in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Data Explorers, a New York-based research firm that tracks short sales.

Chicago-based Allscripts, which specializes in information systems for doctors' offices, was mentioned by JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Thomas J. Lee in a note on Nov. 3 as a company that would be positively affected by the Republican majority of seats in the House of Representatives and the narrowing the Democratic edge in the Senate following the Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections.