Interesting August Stock Options for Wal-Mart Stores
Consistently, one of the more popular stocks people enter into their stock options watchlist at Stock Options Channel is Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT). So this week we highlight one interesting put contract, and one interesting call contract, from the August expiration for WMT.
The put contract our YieldBoost algorithm identified as particularly interesting, is at the $67.50 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of 59 cents. Collecting that bid as the premium represents a 0.9% return against the $67.50 commitment, or a 4.3% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost).
Click here to find out Top YieldBoost WMT Puts »
Selling a put does not give an investor access to WMT’s upside potential the way owning shares would, because the put seller only ends up owning shares in the scenario where the contract is exercised. So unless Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. sees its shares fall 7.6% and the contract is exercised (resulting in a cost basis of $66.91 per share before broker commissions, subtracting the 59 cents from $67.50), the only upside to the put seller is from collecting that premium for the 4.3% annualized rate of return.
Interestingly, that annualized 4.3% figure actually exceeds the 2.7% annualized dividend paid by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. by 1.6%, based on the current share price of $73.04. And yet, if an investor was to buy the stock at the going market price in order to collect the dividend, there is greater downside because the stock would have to fall 7.58% to reach the $67.50 strike price.
Always important when discussing dividends is the fact that, in general, dividend amounts are not always predictable and tend to follow the ups and downs of profitability at each company. In the case of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., looking at the dividend history chart for WMT below can help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue, and in turn whether it is a reasonable expectation to expect a 2.7% annualized dividend yield.
Turning to the other side of the option chain, we highlight one call contract of particular interest for the August expiration, for shareholders of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) looking to boost their income beyond the stock’s 2.7% annualized dividend yield. Selling the covered call at the $75 strike and collecting the premium based on the $1.22 bid, annualizes to an additional 8.2% rate of return against the current stock price (this is what we at Stock Options Channel refer to as the YieldBoost), for a total of 10.9% annualized rate in the scenario where the stock is not called away. Any upside above $75 would be lost if the stock rises there and is called away, but WMT shares would have to advance 2.7% from current levels for that to occur, meaning that in the scenario where the stock is called, the shareholder has earned a 4.3% return from this trading level, in addition to any dividends collected before the stock was called.
[“source-forbes.com”]