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Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported a first-quarter loss of $2.7 million or 5 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, BKS lost 4 cents per share, while analysts had forecast a loss of 15 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 BKS.BKS opened this morning at $25.48. So far today the stock has hit a low of $24.17 and a high of $25.90. As of 11:20, BKS is trading at $24.23 up 0.34 (1.4%). The chart for BKS looks bearish and S&P gives BKS a negative 1 STARS (out of 5) strong sell ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July bull-put credit spread below the $20 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 8.7% return in just two months as long as BKS is above $20 at July expiration. Barnes & Noble would have to fall by more than 17% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
BKS has not been below 20 since March and has shown support 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 BKS.
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