Today, 9/2/10 I BTC 2 BRCD Sep10 5 Covered Calls and STO 2 Jan11 5 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $32.95 in my taxable account.  My basis for these BRCD shares is now 9.82.  This transaction represents a simple return of 1.15% and an annualized return of 2.97% on my basis.

Thomson Reuters continues to rate BRCD as Under Perform as recently as 8/31/10 while S&P has reduced its 12 month price target to 5.00 from 5.50 and has a 3 star out of 5 rating for BRCD.  Market Edge Second Opinion has a price opinion of 5.04 and a neutral rating for BRCD.

When I sole the Sep10 Covered Calls in July, I thought that I might need to roll BRCD out and had hoped that I might be able to roll it up at the same time.  As it turns out I would need to pay to roll the strike up so decided to just roll it out.  The various analyst research reports are supportive of just rolling the Calls out.  On the other hand, BRCD is in essentially the same business as 3PAR which was recently bid up by HPQ and DELL.  There certainly exists the real possibility that somebody will come along and make a bid for BRCD which would leave my $5 strike price in the dust.  I suspect that it is this possibility that has caused BRCD to run up 70 cents or so in the past week.

BRCD does not pay a dividend and has been a real laggard in my accounts.  I will be quite happy for it to be called away one day.

Today, 8/27/10, I sold 4 VLO Oct10 18 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $82.92 in an IRA account.  My basis for these VLO shares is now 34.07, excluding dividends received.  This transaction represents a simple return of about .61% and an annualized return of about 4.48% on my basis.

S&P currently has reduced its 12 month target to $19 from $22 for VLO.  VLO has had a 52 week high of 21.54 and a low of 15.55.  It seems to have had a lot of resistance near or just above 21 over the past year but the trend has been down with recent resistance between $18.50 and $19.  My Aug Calls were written in Jun10 for the 20 strike and expired worthless.  I only went out 2 months again but lowered my strike by $2.  If need be I will be able to roll the October Calls out and possible up for an additional deposit in my account.

Since 2009 then I have received $160 in total dividends from VLO.  VLO reduced its dividend to .05 from .15 with its Mar10 payout.  I am hopeful that the higher dividend will be reinstated one day.  In the meantime I will continue to hold and write Covered Calls on the stock.

Today, 8/27/10, I sold 8 S Jan11 5 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $183.89 in an IRA account.  My basis for these S shares is now 9.98. .

I wrote the following in earlier posts:

S&P has a 12 month price target of $5 for Sprint.  Jim Cramer recently featured Sprint on his show Mad Money.  He has a thesis that Sprint stands a very good chance of benefitting from an upcoming iPhone release that should allow Sprint to provide service for them.  At least that is what I understood him to say.  Jim expects Sprint to report better cash flow and that will cause analysts to upgrade it which in turn will cause it to rise.  He suspected a move to over 5, possibly to 6 in the next few months.  You can see some of his comments at the following link.  If the link does not work directly just cut and past it into your browser.

http://www.thestreet.com/video/10733498/mad-money-recap-sprint.html?puc=_yahooplayer&s=1#79531631001

Since then at least part of Jim’s thesis has come true.  S&P has already raised its 12 month price target to $6.  Sprint is apparently experiencing slower customer losses and appears to benefit from a planned 4G wireless rollout.  Even today, with the DOW down about 183 points as I write this, S is up .02.

Now, in August, S&P has a 12 month price target of $6.50 while MarketEdge has a price opinion of $4.45.  The stock closed down today at $4.00.  Most of the analysts that I can see have negative “sell” type ratings on Sprint.  So, I just decided to go ahead and sell these Covered Calls at $5 and wait and see what happens.  I may need to try rolling them out before Jan11 expiration.

S paid a small dividend (2.5 cents) up until December 2007.  It has not paid a dividend since then and I am not sure if or when they will resume.  Today I do not consider S part of my core holdings, mostly because it no longer pays a dividend, I am still content to hold it and collect option premiums to reduce my basis and one day expect to exit S at a profit.  I Sprint does resume dividends one day, and before I sell it, I will re-evaluate whether or not to continue holding it.  I doubt that I will repurchase it if I no longer hold it at that time.