Juniper Networks (JNPR) Jumping Higher Today!! What are my Options Honey?! By: Tim Bolger

Juniper Networks (JNPR) is poised to sail higher in the coming months and Tech stocks continue momentum to the upside! Attached is a bio on Juniper courtesy of Yahoo Finance: Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops, and sells products and services that provide network infrastructure for networking requirements of service providers, enterprises, governments, and research and public sector organizations worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Infrastructure and SLT. The Infrastructure segment primarily provides scalable routing and switching products that are used to control and direct network traffic. Its products include Internet protocol routing and carrier Ethernet routing portfolio, and Ethernet switching portfolio comprising T series, M series, PTX series, E Series, MX series, and EX series, as well as QFabric and WLAN products. The SLT segment offers solutions that protect the users, applications, and data on the network itself to provide network services across a distributed infrastructure. This segment provides services gateways, integrated firewalls, and VPN solutions, which provide firewall/VPN performance and scalability and combines routing, switching, and security functionality; Junos Pulse mobile security suite and SA series SSL VPN appliances to provide secure access to corporate resources for remote and mobile users from any Web-enabled device; IDP series appliances that utilize intrusion detection methods to increase the detection rate of and prevent network attacks; and identity and policy control solutions to integrate subscriber privileges, application requirements, and business policies with the IP network infrastructure. The company sells its products and service through direct sales, as well as through distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturer partners. Juniper Networks, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

I am long shares of JNPR and think there is big opportunity in the JNPR Options as well. So what is the Options play on JNPR??

Trade #1: I would consider buying the JNPR $23 strike Call Options with a July 20, 2012 for $1.35 a contract. Attached are the Options chains for Juniper with a July 20, 2012 expiration date courtesy of Yahoo Finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=JNPR&m=2012-07.  I can buy 20 contracts for $2,700 plus trading fees and that will get me long exposure to 2,000 shares of Juniper at a $23 exercise price. If Juniper trades to 30 by this summer’s expiration date, these contracts will be worth $14,000 or more. Go Juniper Bulls and let’s make some honey…I mean money!!

Trade#2: I would consider selling the JNPR $23 strike Put Options with an April 20, 2012 expiration date for $1.40 a contract. Attached are the Options chains for Juniper with an April 20, 2012 expiration date courtesy of Yahoo Finance:http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=JNPR&m=2012-04. I can sell 10 Put Option contracts and have $1,400 credited to my brokerage account. I think Juniper shares continue to move higher over the next several months and I believe the shares will trade higher than the $23 strike on the expiration date of these derivative contracts. However, I am comfortable with the worst case scenario of getting exercised on these shares at $23 each and going long a 1,000 shares of Juniper. Remember, this trade is not for beginners and I need to have $23,000 in cash in my brokerage account as collateral in case I get exercised on these shares. I will only get exercised on JNPR shares if the stock is trading below $23 per share on the April 20th, 2012 expiration date of these Put Options. Stay tuned for more action on Http://www/optionshoney.com.

Check out the Technical Chart below on Juniper Networks (JNPR) courtesy of Finviz.com: