Evergreen Solar (ESLR) lifted by cpacity expansion plans

Evergreen Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLR) shares are trading higher after the company announced it has started an expansion project to double the capacity of its Devens, Mass., plant to 160 megawatts by the end of next year. If you think that the stock 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 ESLR.

After hitting a one-year high of $18.85 in December, the stock hit a one-year low of $7.52 in March. ESLR opened this morning at $11.66. So far today the stock has hit a low of $11.10 and a high of $11.97. As of 12:30, ESLR is trading at $11.27, up $0.57 (5.3%). The chart for ESLR is bearish but improving, while S&P gives the stock a bullish 4 Stars (out of 5) Buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $7.50 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 16.3% return in just five and a half months as long as ESLR is above $7.50 at September expiration. Evergreen would have to fall by more than 33% before we would start to lose money.

ESLR hasn't been below $7.50 at all in the past year and has shown support around $9 recently. This trade could be risky if the prices for oil and other energies fall off some in the coming months, but even if that happens, that position could be protected by support the stock might find just above $7.50, where it bottomed out in the past month.

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