Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) cancer drug rejected

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY - option chain) shares are falling today after the European Medicines Agency said it has rejected a request by BMY to market its breast cancer drug Ixempra. The agency said the increase in survival rates using the drug was not significant enough to warrant approval. 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 BMY.

This morning, BMY opened at $18.92. So far today the stock has hit a low of $18.12 and a high of $19.30. As of 12:15, BMY is trading at $18.60, down $0.68 (3.5%). The chart for BMY looks bullish and S&P gives BMY a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bear-call credit spread above the $22.50 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 an 8.7% return in four weeks as long as BMY is below $22.50 at December expiration. Bristol-Myers would have to rise by more than 21% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

TGT hasn't been above $45 since early September and shown resistance 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 BMY.