Note from Daily Trade Alert: We recently launched a new, regular column here at Daily Trade Alert called High-Yield Trade of the Week. The goal of this column is to show our readers how to safely boost their income from some of the best stocks in the world. It’s our sincere hope that you benefit from this new service.
This week’s High-Yield Trade of the Week is with PepsiCo (PEP).
With the stock paying a dividend yield of just 2.9%, it’s probably not on the radar of many retirees who are looking for safe, high income.
In fact, a million-dollar portfolio with that kind of yield would pay you just $29,000 a year.
Unless you’re following a program like Jason Fieber’s “Early Retirement Blueprint”, it’d be very difficult to live off of that kind of income.
And what if this trade was designed to be safer than buying the stock the “traditional” way?
It’s a strategy that I personally use in my retirement accounts (401k and Roth IRA), and one that’s engineered to pay 10%-plus annualized income from some of the best companies in the world.
In short, the strategy I’m talking about involves selling a cash-secured put or a covered call on a high-quality dividend growth stock when it’s trading at a reasonable price (which is typically at or below fair value).
In fact, I just used this strategy to make a high-yield trade with PepsiCo on Friday… and the trade is poised to generate a 14.6% to 15.3% annualized yield.
You can find the details of my specific trade in today’s issue of our sister newsletter, Trades Of The Day.
However, since share prices and options premiums are constantly changing, the numbers below are more current than the trade I made Friday.
Here’s the opportunity we’re looking at today…
High-Yield Trade of the Week:
Sell the November 17, 2017, $110 call on shares of PepsiCo (PEP)
As we go to press, PEP is selling for around $110.23 per share and the November 17 $110 calls are going for about $2.07 per share.
Our trade would involve buying 100 shares of PEP and simultaneously selling one of those calls.
By selling call options, we would be giving the buyer of the option the right, but not the obligation, to purchase our 100 shares at $110 per share (the “strike” price) anytime before November 17 (the contract “expiration” date).
In exchange for that opportunity, the buyer of the option would be paying us $2.07 per share (the “premium”) per option.
Because we’re collecting immediate income when we open the trade, we’re lowering our cost basis on the shares we’re buying.
That’s what makes this trade safer than simply purchasing shares of the underlying stock the “traditional” way.
With all of this in mind, there are two likely ways our High-Yield Trade of the Week would work out, and they both offer significantly higher income than what we’d collect if we relied on the stock’s dividends alone.
To be conservative, we don’t include any dividends in our calculations for either of the following scenarios. The annualized yields are generated from options premium and applicable capital gains alone. So any dividends collected are just “bonus” that will boost our overall annualized yields even further. Let’s take a closer look at each scenario…
Scenario #1: PEP stays under $110 by November 17
If PEP stays under $110 by November 17, our options contract would expire and we’d get to keep our 100 shares.
In the process, we’d receive $207 in premium ($2.07 x 100 shares).
That income would be collected instantly, when the trade opens.
Excluding commissions, if “Scenario 1″ plays out, we’d receive a 1.9% yield for selling the covered call ($2.07 / $110.23) in 39 days. That works out to a 17.6% annualized yield.
Scenario #2: PEP climbs over $110 by November 17
If PEP climbs over $110 by November 17, our 100 shares will get sold (“called away”) at $110 per share.
In “Scenario 2” — like “Scenario 1” — we’d collect an instant $207 in premium ($2.07 x 100 shares) when the trade opens. We’d then lose out on or have to pay another $23 in capital loss ($0.23 x 100) when the trade closes because we’d be buying 100 shares at $110.23 and selling them at $110.
In this scenario, excluding any commissions, we’d be looking at a $184 profit.
From a percentage standpoint, this scenario would deliver an instant 1.9% yield for selling the covered call ($2.07 / $110.23) and a -0.2% return from capital gains ($0.23 / $110.23).
At the end of the day, we’d be looking at a 1.7% total return in 39 days, which works out to a 15.6% annualized yield from PEP.
Here’s how we’d make the trade…
We’d place a “Buy-Write” options order with a Net Debit price of as close to $108.16 ($110.23 – $2.07) as we can get — the lower the better. Options contracts work in 100-share blocks, so we’d have to buy at least 100 shares of PepsiCo (PEP) for this trade. For every 100 shares we’d buy, we’d “Sell to Open” one options contract using a limit order. Accounting for the $207 in premium we’d collect for selling one contract, that would require a minimum investment of $10,816.
Good Trading!
Greg Patrick
P.S. We’d only make this trade if: 1) we wanted to own the underlying stock anyways 2) we believed it was trading at a reasonable price 3) we were comfortable owning it for the long-haul in case the price drops significantly below our cost basis by expiration and 4) we were comfortable letting it go if shares get called away. To be mindful of position sizing, except in rare cases, the value of this trade wouldn’t exceed 5% of our total portfolio value. In addition, to minimize taxes and tax paperwork, we would most likely make this trade in a retirement account, such as an IRA or 401(k).
Please note: We’re not registered financial advisors and these aren’t specific recommendations for you as an individual. Each of our readers have different financial situations, risk tolerance, goals, time frames, etc. You should also be aware that some of the trade details (specifically stock prices and options premiums) are certain to change from the time we do our research, to the time we publish our article, to the time you’re alerted about it. So please don’t attempt to make this trade yourself without first doing your own due diligence and research.