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AFLAC (AFL - option chain) shares are rising today after the company announced this morning that it has sold all its holdings of Greek sovereign debt and reduced exposure to hybrid securities, a move which assuaged investors' fears that the company was exposed to too many risky assets. Also in the announcement, AFL reiterated its growth forecast of 9-12% for this year. 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 AFL.AFL opened this morning at $44.12. So far today the stock has hit a low of $44.07 and a high of $46.20. As of 12:20, AFL is trading at $44.98 up $1.39 (3.2%). The chart for AFL looks neutral and S&P gives AFL a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bull-put credit spread below the $35 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 19.0% return in four months as long as AFL is above $35 at August expiration. AFLAC would have to fall by more than 22% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
AFL has not been below $35 since July of last year and has shown support around $40 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 AFL.
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