Wellpoint (WLP) forced to halt Medicare marketing

Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP - option chain) stock is dropping today after the company announced it will suspend marketing of its Medicare plans for seniors while it corrects a number of compliance problems. 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 WLP.

This morning, WLP opened at $37.40. So far today the stock has hit a low of $36.77 and a high of $39.45. As of 12:25, WLP is trading at $38.74, down $2.22 (-5.4%). The chart for WLP looks neutral and S&P gives WLP a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bear-call credit spread above the $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 leverages nice returns.

For this particular trade, we will make a 6.4% return in two months as long as WLP is below $50 at March expiration. Wellpoint would have to rise by more than 28% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

WLP hasn't been above $50 since September and shown resistance around $45 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 WLP.