Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shares are trading higher today after the company announced it has completed its acquisition of Navteq, a provider of comprehensive digital map information. Nokia hopes the acquisition will help it expand its technology platform. 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 NOK.

After hitting a one-year high of $42.22 in November, the stock hit a one-year low of $23.58 last week. NOK opened this morning at $25.16. So far today the stock has hit a low of $25.16 and a high of $25.73. As of 11:55, NOK is trading at $25.59, up 0.70 (2.8%). The chart for NOK looks bearish and improving slightly, while S&P gives the stock a bullish 4 Stars (out of 5) Buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bull-put credit spread below the $23 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 11.1% return in just five weeks as long as NOK is above $23 at August expiration. Nokia would have to fall by more than 10% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

NOK hasn't been below $23.50 at all in the past year and has shown support around $23.50 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out on 7/17) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the fact that is has dropped sharply over much of the past year and expectations for earnings may be muted.

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 NOK.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) closed at $29.51 Monday.

Navteq (NSYE: NVT) agreed to be purchased by NOK on Oct. 1, 2007 for $78 cash ($7.6 billion). The European Commission is investigating the deal.

NOK June call option implied volatility of 30 and puts implied volatility of 35 is below its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price risk.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Navteq (NYSE: NVT) closed at $69.70.

The European Commission said it opened an investigation into NOK's planned $8.1 billion buyout of NVT. NVT agreed to be purchased by Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on Oct. 1 for $78 cash.

NVT is a global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation. The EU has until August 8 to decide on the NOK-NVT deal according to the WSJ.

NVT overall option implied volatility 33 is above its 23-week average of 19 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

After a last-minute bid to snatch GPS map info provider Tele Atlas (AMS:TA) from competitor TomTom (AMS:TOM2), Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) has dropped out of the bidding, according to Bloomberg. The company had jumped TomTom's friendly takeover offer of under $30 a share with a bid of $35.48. TomTom then responded with a jump to $43.44, or $4.2 billion, a 81% premium on the stock at that time.

This was apparently too rich for Garmin's blood. With Tele Atlas, a premier vendor of GPS map data, in its fold, look for TomTom to expand its family of GPS-specific devices as well as licensing the data for other technologies such as cell phones. Since TomTom was already a Tele Atlas customer, that portion of its expenses will now remain in-house, as well.

Tele Atlas is one of only two large providers of this data. The other, Navteq, was recently purchased for $8.1 billion by Nokia (NYSE:NOK). Garmin, a Navteq customer, just extended its contract with that company for another six years.

The deal would have made sense for either company, but the question is, at what cost? Perhaps the fact that both TomTom and Tele Atlas are based in Europe will help them streamline operations and thereby justify the expense. With the pace of evolution in this market, though, the time frame to leverage the purchase is not long.

Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) have been struggling lately as the company has been involved in a bidding war for Dutch digital mapmaker Tele Atlas NV. That has all changed this morning with the news that Garmin has pulled out of the bidding for Tele Atlas and instead signed a deal with Navteq Corp. (NYSE: NVT) for mapping services through the year 2015.

The stock has been soaring in premarket trading, up over 20% on this morning's news. Wall Street has been pretty tough on Garmin lately as investors worried about where the company would get its mapping services. Earlier this year, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) made an $8.1 billion bid for Navteq, and concerns mounted that Garmin would be unable to continue to get its mapping needs from the company.

After the Nokia offer for Navteq, Garmin had entered into a bidding war to acquire the only other major mapping provider, Tele Atlas, the other bidder being TomTom NV. TomTom has recently upped the ante for Tele Atlas to $4.2 billion, which was well above what Garmin was willing to pay for the company.

Today's announcement comes as great news to Garmin investors and the stock will be rewarded nicely in today's market.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Toronto Dominion, Cytec Industries, Ceragon Networks, Micron and Navteq were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• CIBC downgraded shares of Toronto Dominion (NYSE: TD) to Sector Performer from Outperformer following the Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) acquisition, as they see integration risks and believes the deal will limit the company's ability to buyback stock.
  
• Cytec Industries (NYSE: CYT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, as they believe near-term risks to demand and margins could bring a better entry point by 1H08. Target lowered to $75 from $79.
  
• Collins Stewart downgraded shares of Ceragon Networks (NASDAQ: CRNT) to Underperform from Buy on valuation and uncertainties surrounding the stock, which include the NEC infringement issue and increased competition.
  
• Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) was downgraded to Accumulate from Buy at ThinkEquity. The firm is cautious on the sustainability of PC related demand and questions component order levels relative to PC sell through.
  
• Banc of America downgraded shares of Navteq Corporation (NYSE: NVT) to Neutral from Buy following Nokia's (NOK) proposed buyout.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• JP Morgan downgraded Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO) to Neutral from Overweight.
  
• Goldman removed Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) from its Conviction Buy List.
  
• Citigroup downgraded GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) to Neutral from Outperform.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Walgreen, CBS Corp, SL Green Realty, Brandywine Realty Trust and Navteq were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill and to Market Perform from Outperform following its weak Q4 report. Merrill sees limited upside following the worse-than-expected quarter.
  
• CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank to reflect the company's soft rating trends and poor local advertising growth.
  
• Banc of America downgraded shares of SL Green Realty (NYSE: SLG) and Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE: BDN) to Neutral from Buy. The firm downgraded shares of SL Green to reflect their more cautious stance on the office sector and believes uncertainty over cap rates will limit share upside, and downgraded shares of Brandywine to reflect a lack of near-term catalysts and their more cautious stance on the office sector.
  
• Navteq Corporation (NYSE: NVT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS and to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities following its acquisition by Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK).

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Goldman Sachs removed Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) from its Conviction Buy List.
  
• The firm downgraded Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD) to Neutral from Buy and Valspar Corporation (NYSE: VAL) to Sell from Neutral.
  
• CIBC downgraded Axcan Pharma (NASDAQ: AXCA) to Sector Performer from Sector Outperformer.
  
• Humana Inc (NYSE: HUM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: UBS AG, ProLogis, AMB Property, Navteq and PDL BioPharma were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Neutral from Underweight as they believe the company can start fresh after yesterday's pre-announcement.
  
• Banc of America upgraded shares of ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) and AMB Property (NYSE: AMB) to Buy from Neutral to reflect their positive outlook on global industrial REITs and believes they are positioned to benefit from global demand for industrial space.
  
• Navteq Corporation (NYSE: NVT) was upgraded at Deutsche Bank to Hold from Sell to reflect the acquisition by Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK).
  
• Wachovia raised shares of PDL BioPharma Inc (NASDAQ: PDLI) to Outperform from Market Perform following the CEO resignation and potential sale of the company.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) was upgraded to Buy from Gradually Accumulate at Soleil.
  
• Gabelli upgraded Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) to Hold from Sell.
  
• Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
  
• Roth Capital upgraded Conexant Systems (NASDAQ: CNXT) to Hold from Sell.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: MGM Mirage (MGM), Motorola (MOT), Navteq (NVT), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Intel (INTC) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Lehman upgraded shares of MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) to Overweight from Equal-Weight on valuation as they believe the market is currently undervaluing the company's growth prospects.

• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at JMP Securities on valuation.

• Following the acquisition of competitor Tele Atlas by TomTom, CIBC believes Navteq (NYSE: NVT) is well positioned to gain share, upgrading the stock to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer, and believes Garmin (GRMN) should consider buying the company for its exclusive map content.

• AG Edwards believes the recent pullback in ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has created a buying opportunity, upgrading shares to Buy from Hold.

• Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was added to American Technology's Focus List following its recent sell-off...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Citigroup upgraded Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) to Buy from Hold.

• Cox Radio (NYSE: CXR) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.

• JP Morgan upgraded transports Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) to Overweight from Neutral.

• PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Matrix USA.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) hot acquisition spree is setting the web search leader up to be the king of all information dispersal. Sounds like a heavy undertaking, doesn't it? It is, but Google has a multi-billion dollar war chest of cash and earns more every quarter. This company can afford to go nuts in its drive for world domination. Ah. It's good to be king, no?

NAVTEQ Corp. (NYSE: NVT) would make an interesting acquisition for Google's global mapping and navigation efforts. Google Local and Google Maps are already pretty heavily-used devices on computers and mobile phones these days, and Navteq's GPS positioning software products for mobile devices and handheld devices like Palm Treos and BlackBerries would further entrench Google into providing real-time, accurate navigational information to mobile customers, of which there are more than 150 million in the U.S. alone.

When Google says that the "mobile" front will be bigger than the PC front someday (in terms of information retrieval), you have to believe it knows what it's talking about. The sheer amount of mobile devices alone makes the market ripe for business -- and it's literally just getting started. NAVTEQ shares have jumped 20% since last week after Jim Cramer mentioned the company on CNBC in connection with being "Google-icious" (re: a perfect fit for Google), so if the navigation company is indeed acquired by Google, it'll be yet another large win for the search king as it moves fast and furious into mobile information providing and retrieval.