Expeditors Int'l (EXPD) drops on weak forecast


EXPD logoExpeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ: EXPD - option chain) stock is falling today after the company forecast second-quarter earnings of 24 cents to 26 cents a share, below analysts' projections of 30 cents per share. 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 EXPD.

This morning, EXPD opened at $28.94. So far today the stock has hit a low of $28.50 and a high of $30.15. As of 11:55, EXPD is trading at $29.95, down $1.71 (-5.4%). The chart for EXPD looks bullish and S&P gives EXPD a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking`.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a November bear-call credit spread above the $40 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 a 6.4% return in four months as long as EXPD is below $40 at November expiration. Expiditors would have to rise by more than 33% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

EXPD hasn't been above $37 since November and shown resistance around $34 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 EXPD
.
Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 05:01 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328911317915 ms.