Shares of Irvine-based Allergan Inc. surged Tuesday on speculation the drug maker could be bought.
The company’s stock closed up 13% on a market value of nearly $15 billion.
Takeover rumors are nothing new for Allergan,a midsize drug maker in a market dominated by big companies.
The speculated suitor this time around is GlaxoSmithKline PLC, whose predecessor SmithKline Beecham PLC acquired Allergan in 1980 and later spun off the business.
Buyers of Allergan call options,bets that a stock will go up in price, as is often the case in an acquisition,have surged in recent weeks, according to a Street.com blog by Pete Najarian, cofounder of options trading news site OptionsMonster.com
Investors bought some 13,000 option contracts to buy Allergan shares at 45 and 50 in April, according to Najarian.
Allergan shares closed at $40 on Friday, before Monday’s big stock market rally and Tuesday’s takeover speculation surge, which pushed the stock to $48 at recent check.
The call contracts outnumbered puts,or bets the stock will go down,by 20 to 1, Najarian said.
Allergan takeover talk heated up after January’s $1.1 billion acquisition by Johnson & Johnson of Mentor Corp., a Santa Barbara-based Allergan rival that makes breast implants.
Allergan makes wrinkle remover Botox, wrinkle filler Juv & #233;derm, obesity treatment Lap-Band and eye and skin drugs.
