Colgate-Palmolive (CL: sentiment, chart, options) announced third-quarter earnings of $500 million, or 94 cents per share, versus its year-ago profit of $420 million, or 77 cents per share. Adjusted earnings in the period were 99 cents per share. Sales rose 13% to $3.99 billion. The consensus earnings estimate for the quarter was 97 cents per share on sales of $3.99 billion.

In a statement released by the company, Chief Executive Officer Ian Cook said, "Given our strong momentum and excellent savings initiatives, we are comfortable with external profit expectations for the fourth quarter and full-year 2008."

Heading into the earnings report, options players were extremely optimistic when it comes to the consumer goods giant. The Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio came at in 0.77, which is lower than 81% of all those taken during the past 52 weeks. In other words, short-term options speculators have been more optimistically aligned toward the stock just 19% of the time during the past year.

Technically speaking, the stock has recently bounced off support in the 55 region and is struggling to overcome resistance at its declining 10-day moving average. The security's 10-day and 20-day trendlines have served as staunch resistance through mid-September.