Eaton (NYSE: ETN - option chain) shares have soared higher today after Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) disclosed in an SEC filing Friday afternoon that it has bought 2.91 million shares of ETN over the past six months. Usuall,y when announcements like this are made, investors follow the Oracle of Omaha and send the stock higher. If you think 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 ETN.ETN opened this morning at $42.30. So far today the stock has hit a low of $41.48 and a high of $43.35. As of 12:25, ETN is trading at $43.49, up $2.34 (5.7%). The chart for ETN looks neutral and S&P gives ETN a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bull-put credit spread below the $30 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 5.3% return in just five weeks as long as ETN is above $30 at December expiration. Eaton would have to fall by more than 30% before we would start to lose money.
ETN hasn't been below $37 at all in the past year and has shown support around $39 recently.
Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in ETN or Berkshire.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-17-2008 @ 5:01PM
Jae Jun said...
solid company with good consistency in its number. Only thing holding me back is the amount of acquisitions and debt.
I wrote an article on this which you read at http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/stock-analysis/ill-pass-on-eaton-corp-etn-for-now/
11-17-2008 @ 7:27PM
Sam said...
I agree with Jae that Eaton has shown good consistent performance over a significant period now.
I think Eaton along with ConocoPhillips (COP) should certainly be on your watch list
-Sam
http://tickertoday.blogspot.com