Put Volume Soars on H & R Block (HRB)

Shares of H & R Block HRB are falling today by 9.72%, currently trading at $12.36. The company announced yesterday that they are going to acquire 2SS Holdings Inc., the developer of TaxACT digital tax preparation solutions, for $287.5 million in cash. Options traders are echoing the negative sentiment in the name by buying puts today. Overall put volume is running at 16x the daily average with 57,000 puts traded today versus only 7,000 calls. The heaviest action is coming in November, where over 27,000 puts have traded across the $10, $11, $12, and $13 strikes. The vast majority of action has been buying on the offer. H&R Block, Inc. has subsidiaries that provide tax, banking, and business and consulting services. The company's Tax Services segment provides income tax return preparation, electronic filing and other services and products related to income tax return preparation to the general public primarily in the United States, and also in Canada and Australia.