Yesterday, 10/19/10, I sold 1 WIN Nov11 12.50 Puts for a net deposit of $25.22 in an IRA account.  My basis for these WIN shares, if put to me, would be 12.25, plus trading costs.

This option trade produces about a 2.0% simple return and about a 22.85% annualized return on the potential assigned cost.  In a prior Put that I sold on Win I went out to Feb11 and the lower $10 strike price.  At this point I would rather have just purchased the stock and sold Covered Calls on it.  I decided this time to still sell the Put but for the current month to either receive the stock earlier or be in a position to sell Puts again.

I have been looking at WIN for sometime now.  Jim Cramer has promoted it as a good dividend stock with room to grow.  One of the panelists on CNBC’s Fast Money show called it last August.  And then I read a Motley Fool article that called WIN out as a good dividend stock.  It’s like the gods were speaking to me.  After all that I decided to do another transaction with WIN.

WIN pays a 25 cent quarterly dividend for about an 8.04% annualized return on its current price.  Add an option premium now and then to the dividends and there is a pretty good annual return on the investment if it should be assigned to me.

Today, 8/13/10, I sold 2 WIN Feb11 10 Puts for a net deposit of $80.47 in an IRA account.  My basis for these WIN shares, if put to me, would be 9.60, plus trading costs.

This option trade produces about a 4.0% simple return and about a 7.71% annualized return on the potential assigned cost.  The annualized return is not as high as some others I have recently made but is still higher than my current average return on my basis of 6.34%.  The reason that I went all the way out the Feb11 and chose the $10 strike price is because it fit into the cash I had available in the account while providing a large enough premium and return to make it worthwhile.

I have been looking at WIN for sometime now.  Jim Cramer has promoted it as a good dividend stock with room to grow.  One of the panelists on CNBC’s Fast Money show called it out recently.  And then today, I read a Motley Fool article that called WIN out as a good dividend stock.  After all of those references and additional research I finally decided to do something with WIN.  It’s like the gods were speaking to me.

WIN pays a 25 cent quarterly dividend for about an 8.87% annualized return on its current price.  Add an option premium now and then to the dividends and there is a pretty good annual return on the investment if it should assigned to me.  However, at this time I suspect that I will not be assigned this stock.  S&P has a 12 month price target of $15 and a 5 star rating on WIN.  On the other hand, with potential tax rates on dividends rising in 2011 with the probable expiration of the Bush tax cuts, stock like WIN may lose some of their luster and experience a price pull back.  Time will tell.

On 11/25/09, I sold 2 WIN Jan10 10 Puts for a net deposit of $48.49 in my taxable account.  If put to me my basis for these WIN shares will be 9.76.

I’m a little behind updating my trades in this blog.  What with some volunteer work and holiday activities I have been too distracted.  I’ll get caught up today.

Jim Crammer first brought WIN to my attention as a stock with a high dividend.  WIN currently pays .25 per share which equates to about 9.4% at today’s price currently at 10.79.   Windstream Corporation is a provider of telecommunications services in rural communities in the United States, including high speed internet access.  With dial-up access declining it made sense to me that a company filling the high speed gap in rural areas would be a good play.

WIN was just above 10 when I sold these Puts.  My thinking was that I wouldn’t mind owning WIN if assigned and would simply begin to sell Covered Calls on it and begin to collect the nice dividends.  At this point it appears that I will not have that opportunity.  I may be able to continue selling Puts on it though.  I think I win (no pun intended) in either case.