Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) shares are trading higher after INTU announced yesterday evening its third-quarter profits jumped 21% to $444.2 million on strong sales of its tax-preparation and accounting programs. The company posted earnings of $1.39 a share on revenue of $1.31 billion, beating analysts' expectations. Also of note was a new $600 million stock buyback plan. 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 INTU.

After hitting a one-year high of $33.10 in October, the stock hit a one-year low of $25.08 in March. INTU opened this morning at $27.81. So far today the stock has hit a low of $27.56 and a high of $29.29. As of 12:20, INTU is trading at $28.50, up $1.29 (4.7%). The chart for INTUlooks bullish and steady while S&P gives INTU a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $25 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 19.0% return in just five months as long as INTU is above $25 at October expiration. Intuit would have to fall by more than 12% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

INTU hasn't been below $25 at all in the past year and has shown support around $27 recently. This trade could be risky if the stock breaks below its recent trading range of $27 to $29, but even if that happens, the stock could find some historical support around $25, where it bottomed in March.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in INTU.