salesforce.com (CRM) soars on Q4 earnings, Q1 guidance

salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) shares are rising strongly today, after the company announced Q4 earnings that beat estimates by 2 cents and predicted that it will earn between 6 and 7 cents per share on $233 million to $235 million in revenue in the first quarter, above Wall Street estimates of 6 cents per share on $228.5 million in revenue. CRM also expects fiscal 2008 earnings to come to 32 to 33 cents per share, in line with analyst estimates of 32 cents per share. If you think that the company won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CRM.

After hitting a one-year low of $37.24 in August, the stock hit a one-year high of $65.52 in December. CRM opened this morning at $52.88. So far today the stock has hit a low of $57.54 and a high of $63.47. As of 10:45, CRM is trading at $61.87, up $9.25 (17.8%). The chart for CRM looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May bull-put credit spread below the $40 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 5.3% return in just three months as long as CRM is above $40 at May expiration. salesforce.com would have to fall by more than 35% before we would start to lose money.

CRM hasn't been below $40 since August and has shown support around $53 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings do not turn out to be as good as they seem at first glance today, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find at its 200-day moving average, which is around $50 and rising.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in CRM.