Hansen Natural (HANS) lifts on energy drink earnings

Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS - option chain) shares are soaring higher today after the company reported yesterday evening its second quarter profit jumped to 31 percent to $50.2 million on sales of its Monster energy drink. Despite missing estimates by a penny, the growth numbers and decreasing operational expenses are encouraging investors. 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 HANS.

HANS opened this morning at $21.43. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.67 and a high of $23.42. As of 12:55, HANS is trading at $23.42, up 1.77 (8.2%). The chart for HANS looks bearish and steady.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $17.50 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 13.6% return in just six weeks as long as HANS is above $17.50 at September expiration. Hansen would have to fall by more than 25% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

HANS hasn't been below $20 at all in the past year and has shown support around $21.50 recently.

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 HANS.