Baxter International (NYSE: BAX - option chain) shares are headed higher today after the company reported an adjusted first-quarter profit of $516 million, or 83 cents per share, beating analysts' estimates of 81 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 BAX.BAX opened this morning at $51.03. So far today the stock has hit a low of $50.90 and a high of $51.95. As of 11:55, BAX is trading at $51.53, up $2.28 (4.6%). The chart for BAX looks bullish and S&P gives BAX a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May 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 a 5.3% return in just four weeks as long as BAX is above $45 at May expiration. Baxter would have to fall by more than 12% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
BAX hasn't been below $45 at all in the past year and has shown support around $48 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 BAX.
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