Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM - option chain) shares are rising today after the company announced this morning that it will buy privately-owned Colombian cigarette maker Protabaco in a deal that will cost the company $452 million. 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 PM.PM opened this morning at $43.06. So far today the stock has hit a low of $42.01 and a high of $43.57. As of 11:45, PM is trading at $42.85 up 51 cents(1.2%). The chart for PM looks bullish and S&P gives PM a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $37 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 7.1% return in just two and a half months as long as PM is above $37 at September expiration. PM would have to fall by more than 13% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
PM has not been below $37 since early May and has shown support around $41 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 PM.
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