The shares of The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) have attracted some heavy options trading this afternoon following the firm's lackluster earnings report. While the firm benefited from strong sales in countries such as China and India, third-quarter earnings were flat and revenue declined as the beverage giant continued to be hurt by fluctuations in global currencies. For the third quarter, the company's profit was flat from a year earlier at $1.89 billion, or 81 cents a share, while sales dropped 4% to $8.04 billion. Analysts had predicted a profit of 81 cents per share on revenue of $8.11 billion.

In the options pits this afternoon, the security has seen brisk trading on both the call and the put sides. The November 52.50 put has been the most active, with more than 6,800 contracts changing hands on open interest of 7,926 contracts. At 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, five large blocks totaling 1,500 contracts changed hands at an ask price of $0.75, indicating that they were purchased, at a total cost of $112,500. The blocks were marked "spread," leading me to believe that there was another half to this trade.

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