April 2nd, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Today, 4/2/12, I bought 200 shares of ANR at $15.56, including trading costs, and then sold 2 Apr12 $16 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $92.48 in an IRA account. This transaction represents a simple return of about 2.97% and an annualized return of about 57.11% with 19 days left to expiration. My basis for these ANR shares in each account is now $15.10.
I also sold 1 ANR Apr12 $15 Put for a net deposit of $37.24 in another IRA account. This transaction represents a simple return of about 2.51% and an annualized return of about 48.19% on my potential basis.
Earlier, I wrote about buying ANR and then selling weekly Covered Calls last week. To my surprise, those shares were called away from me. ANR appears to be undervalued (as most of the coal stocks are right now) so I decided to work with it a little longer.
ANR does not pay a dividend so these ANR shares are most definitely a trade and not an investment. S&P has a 12-month price target of $19 and a hold recommendation on ANR. MarketEdge has a price opinion of $17.40 and an Avoid recommendation. The 22 Yahoo analysts covering ANR are more optimistic with a 12-month price target of $25.59 and a recommendation of 2.2 where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.
March 12th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Today, 3/1212, I BTC 2 F Mar12 $15 Puts and STO 2 F Dec12 $15 Puts for a net deposit of $98.96 in an IRA account. My basis for these F shares, if put to me, would now be about $13.34, plus trading costs. This transaction represents a simple return of about 3.74% and an annualized return of about 4.78 on my potential basis. There are currently 285 days to expiration.
When I originally sold Jun11 $15 Puts I said that if F was below my 15 strike price I would probably leave the Puts alone and own an additional 200 shares to average down my holding in this account and then sell new Covered Calls on the lot. However, F has fallen so far and is well below what would have been my basis that twice now I have decided to roll the Puts out instead.
S&P currently has a12-month price target of $15 and a Buy recommendation for F. MarketEdge has a price opinion of $12.04 and a Long recommendation. The 14 Yahoo! Analysts have a 1-year mean price target of $16.07 on F with a recommendation of 2.1, where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.
As anticipated, F began to pay a dividend this year. I received .05 per share earlier this month. As far as I can tell, the largest quarterly dividend that F has paid was .10 per share so I guess .05 is a good start.
February 21st, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Today, 2/21/12, I sold 11 HPQ Feb 24, 2012 $29 Puts for a net deposit of $568.66 in 5 IRA Accounts and in my Taxable Account. My potential basis for these HPQ varies from about $29.07 to about $29.20. These transactions represents simple returns of about 1.50% to about 1.91% and annualized returns of about 194.91% to about 220.08% on my potential basis with 3 days to expiration.
The WFC shares that I have been making weekly trades on were called away last week as I wrote about a couple of days ago. In casting about for what to trade next, I investigated several stocks as suggested in that last post. At time point, HPQ offered the best return of those I investigated. It also offers the possibility of collecting a .12 dividend if I am assigned prior to the ex-dividend date of 3/12/12 and then not called away prior to the ex-dividend date. Of course, I need to continue to sell Puts on HPQ if not assigned them this week in order to have a chance at that dividend.
S&P has a 12-month price target of $29 with a Neutral recommendation on HPQ. MarketEdge has a price opinion of $28.13 and a Long recommendation. The 26 Yahoo Analysts have a 12-month price target of $30.17 and a recommendation of 2.6 on a scale where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.
