An Options Trade Fit for a Presidential Hopeful

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Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) is a holding company that, through its subsidiaries (including Tiffany & Co.) designs, makes and sells fine jewelry and other keepsake gift items. Its segments include Americas, Asia-Pacific, Japan and Europe. TIF is the poster child of high-end retailing. (Just ask Newt Gingrich!)

Tiffany has been a big relative out-performer to the S&P 500 until the last couple of days, with shares down 9% even though the company beat top- and bottom-line expectations. Even Wednesday’s big market run-up didn’t make much of an impact.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good company or stock. For instance, TIF posted earnings of 70 cents, easily beating expectations of 61 cents, with earnings growing 63% year-over-year. Same-store sales rose 16%, with much of the growth in Asia.

While the company raised its full-year earnings guidance slightly to a range of $3.70 to $3.80, up from $3.65 to $3.75, the expectations for the current quarter were disappointing. The range of $1.48 to $1.58 was below analysts’ expectations for $1.63. More telling, Tiffany’s gross margin slipped slightly to 57.9% from 58.5%.

With analysts focused on the short term, I like the company on a valuation basis on an intermediate-term outlook. Given a guidance midpoint of 3.75, TIF now trades at a more-reasonable multiple of 18 — which is attractive now, given its growth rate. Combined with a decent yield approaching 2%, I look for TIF to head back to the $75 level by May 2012 expiration.

Based on TIF current market price of $67.32 and using a target price of $75, a target date of May 18, 2012, and $1,000 of investment capital, , this is an excellent candidate for capturing some nice upside by buying a May call spread (such as the TIF May 67.50-72 bull-call spread), selling a May put spread or buying the stock.

For the full details on this trade, visit TradingBlock.com, create a free Instant Login and try the TradeBuilder feature, where you’ll see several ways to trade this name. Best of all, you can see a potential profit-and-loss outline for each strategy.

Create your free login, and get access to these TIF option trading strategies by visiting the TradeBuilder here.


Tim spent 13 years as Chief Options Strategist at Man Securities in Chicago, four years as Lead Options Strategist at ThinkorSwim and three years as a Market Maker for First Options in Chicago. Tim makes weekly appearances on Bloomberg TV  “Options Insight”, Business First AM “Trader Talk”, TD Ameritade Network “Morning Trade Live” and CBOE-TV “Vol 411” to discuss everything from volatility and option related.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2011/12/an-options-trade-fit-for-a-presidential-hopeful-tiffany-tif/.

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