United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS - option chain) shares slightly higher today after the company said it earned $970 million, or 96 cents a share, during the third quarter. Analysts had expected a profit of 89 cents per share. 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 UPS.

UPS opened this morning at $47.68. So far today the stock has hit a low of $47.00 and a high of $48.65. As of 12:55, UPS is trading at $47.46, up $1.07 (2.3%). The chart for UPS looks neutral and S&P gives UPS a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a November bull-put credit spread below the $40 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 one month as long as UPS is above $40 at November expiration. UPS would have to fall by more than 15% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

UPS hasn't been below $45 except for a few days in the past year and has shown support around $47 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 UPS.