Orange County’s big up stock on a down Wednesday on Wall Street? Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc.
Shares of the business software maker closed up 9% on a market value of $1.7 billion. They rose as much as 11% during trading on Wednesday.
Quest defied a bad day on Wall Street in which the major exchanges fell about 1%.
There was no major news on Quest.
The gain could have been spurred by heavy buying of Quest options by investors betting the company’s shares could go higher.
Investors bought 2,600 Quest options contracts Wednesday, an unsually high level of trading for the company.
The options contracts expire next month and call for Quest shares to reach $20 apiece.
If the shares close higher than $20 when the options contracts expire, investors pocket the difference.
Quest shares closed at $19.29 on Wednesday.
The options buying could be speculation by some that Quest is a takeover target.
The company long has been the subject of buyout chatter as a smaller player in a software industry dominated by big names.
Or investors could just be betting that Quest’s shares are about to rise on their own.
Quest makes software that manages and improves upon other business applications by Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and others.
