DSW (NYSE: DSW) issued a pretty short press release detailing its Q4 earnings on Wednesday. Can't blame management about that. There really wasn't much to say, other than the data did not look appealing.

The footwear business reported a loss of 17 cents per share. In the previous year's Q4, there was a profit of 2 cents per share (I'm sure DSW is looking on that time period with bitter nostalgia). Unfortunately, the market was looking for a loss of only 12 cents per share according to this.

Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS - option chain) shares have moved higher today after the company, which includes Payless Shoe Source and Stride Rite reported a third-quarter profit of $47.5 million, or 75 cents per share, on revenue of $862.7 million. PSS's adjusted profit of 42 cents per share met analysts' estimates of 42 cents per share on revenue of $840.7 million. In this environment, merely meeting estimates warrants a 20+% jump in stock price. It seems that PSS is keeping up its profits the same way discounters like Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) have by taking advantage of cost-conscious consumers. 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 PSS.

PSS opened this morning at $7.76. So far today the stock has hit a low of $7.68 and a high of $9.70. As of 12:00, PSS is trading at $9.11, up $1.85 (25.5%). The chart for neutral and S&P gives PSS a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bull-put credit spread below the $5 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 just three and a half months as long as PSS is above $5 at March expiration. Collective would have to fall by more than 45% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

PSS hasn't been below $5 at all except for one day in the past year and has shown support around $6.50 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 PSS or FDO.

This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

When it rains, it pours. Back in 2005 Defamer reports that Star " I am a lawyer" Jones was booted as a spokesperson for Payless Shoe Source around the same time that she was dumped from The View. Jones was clearly of no use to the shoe chain once she was Barbaraed off of The View. So Payless used its steel-toed boot to kick her to the curb.

Defamer noted that both parties tried to put a good spin on the situation. Payless said that the terms of their contract called for it to end after three years and that it was successful. And Jones said the same thing about the contract ending -- but she suggested that Payless decided it no longer wanted celebrities to endorse its products. Jones clearly still considered herself a celebrity.

But the people who release such statements are often paid well to provide a different view of reality. Unfortunately for Jones, it has been years since she's had as good a marketing platform as The View -- from which to offer such spin.

Read the entire series

In what looks like an effort to diversify away from its low-price and low-quality (although that has been improving of late) flagship brand, Payless ShoeSource Inc. (NYSE: PPS) is acquiring Stride Rite Corp. (NYSE: SRR), the leading retailer of footwear for children. I have fond memories of going to Stride Rite with my parents when I was younger to pick out new shoes, and a lot of other people have similar memories. Payless will pay $800 million in cash for the company.

The company will change its name to Collective Branding after the deal is consummated because it was the most boring name it could think of that wasn't already taken.

Shares of Stride Rite are up more than 30%, while Payless shares soared more than 10%, making this one of those rare deals that looks good for the acquired company's shareholders and the owners of the acquiring company.

Payless has been a strong performer over the past few years, as CEO Matt Rubell has focused on upping the quality of the company's products. This acquisition seems like a great way to continue on that path, and the company's balance sheet looks strong enough to handle it.