3M (MMM) buys French company

3M (NYSE: MMM - option chain) shares are rising today after the company announced it will buy license plate manufacturer Financiere Burgienne. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. I am encouraged by most companies who are willing to make a deal at this point in the market cycle, because they are most likely getting these new assets for much less than the asking price would have been for the same thing a year ago. 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 MMM.

MMM opened this morning at $58.75. So far today the stock has hit a low of $56.01 and a high of $58.75. As of 12:20, MMM is trading at $57.43, up $3.17 (5.8%). The chart for MMM looks neutral and S&P gives MMM a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a January bull-put credit spread below the $45 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 an 11.1% return in just three months as long as MMM is above $45 at January expiration. 3M would have to fall by more than 22% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

MMM hasn't been below $50 at all in the past year and has shown support around $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 MMM.