Credit: Shutterstock photoConsistently, one of the more popular stocks people enter into their stock options watchlist at Stock Options Channel is 3M Co (Symbol: MMM). So this week we highlight one interesting put contract, and one interesting call contract, from the September 2018 expiration for MMM. The put contract our YieldBoost algorithm identified as particularly interesting, is at the $165 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of $4.25. Collecting that bid as the premium represents a 2.6% return against the $165 commitment, or a 2% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost ).
Selling a put does not give an investor access to MMM'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 3M Co sees its shares fall 20.2% and the contract is exercised (resulting in a cost basis of $160.75 per share before broker commissions, subtracting the $4.25 from $165), the only upside to the put seller is from collecting that premium for the 2% annualized rate of return.
Turning to the other side of the option chain, we highlight one call contract of particular interest for the September 2018 expiration, for shareholders of 3M Co (Symbol: MMM) looking to boost their income beyond the stock's 2.3% annualized dividend yield. Selling the covered call at the $220 strike and collecting the premium based on the $8.45 bid, annualizes to an additional 3.1% 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 5.4% annualized rate in the scenario where the stock is not called away. Any upside above $220 would be lost if the stock rises there and is called away, but MMM shares would have to climb 6.3% from current levels for that to occur, meaning that in the scenario where the stock is called, the shareholder has earned a 10.4% return from this trading level, in addition to any dividends collected before the stock was called.
The chart below shows the trailing twelve month trading history for 3M Co, highlighting in green where the $165 strike is located relative to that history, and highlighting the $220 strike in red:
The chart above, and the stock's historical volatility, can be a helpful guide in combination with fundamental analysis to judge whether selling the September 2018 put or call options highlighted in this article deliver a rate of return that represents good reward for the risks. We calculate the trailing twelve month volatility for 3M Co (considering the last 251 trading day MMM historical stock prices using closing values, as well as today's price of $206.79) to be 12%.
In mid-afternoon trading on Monday, the put volume among S&P 500 components was 727,228 contracts, with call volume at 1.29M, for a put:call ratio of 0.57 so far for the day. Compared to the long-term median put:call ratio of .65, that represents high call volume relative to puts; in other words, buyers are showing a preference for calls in options trading so far today. Find out which 15 call and put options traders are talking about today .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
