Eaton (NYSE: ETN) shares are falling today after the company announced this morning that it has named Joseph P. Palchak its new Automotive Group Chief Executive Officer. ETN shares are trading lower today with most other auto component companies as a weak first-quarter GDP reading has investors worried about the fragile state of the economy. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on ETN.After hitting a one-year high of $104.12 in July, the stock hit a one-year low of $66.27 in January. This morning, ETN opened at $87.94. So far today the stock has hit a low of $84.78 and a high of $87.94. As of 11:40, ETN is trading at $84.88, down $3.67 (-4.2%). The chart for ETN looks bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bear-call credit spread above the $100 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call 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 6.4% return in seven weeks as long as ETN is below $100 at August expiration. Eaton would have to rise by more than 17% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
ETN hasn't been above $100 since October and has shown resistance around $97 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in mid-July) are a positive surprise, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance ETN might find around $97, where it topped out over the past month.
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 JMP or MS.