Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Chevron Corporation (CVX): Cover Calls Attractive with Market High

Next, gains are made if the stock is sold at a higher price than when it was purchased. If Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) was around $100.00 per share and sold now at $121.00, there would a profit of over $20 per share from the transaction. That goes to the owner of the stock, not the buyer of the call option. If Chevron were to fall in price, the call option would not be exercised.

In addition to the capital gains, the owner of the shares gets to keep the dividend income that’s paid during the option period. For Chevron, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Intel, that’s not a minor consideration as each has a robust dividend. While the average dividend for a member of the S&P 500 is around 2%, for Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) it is 2.97%, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) it is 3.25%, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) it is 3.26% and for Intel it is 4.22%.

When you write covered calls, your goal is to keep your shares and still book the income from selling the options and cashing the dividend checks. Stocks that have risen, but do not appear to have much upside left, with strong dividend income are the ideal candidates. As the table below shows, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Intel are all up for 2013. Chevron is very close to its 52-week high, with Microsoft near its peak for that same time period.

Source: Finviz

Based on that, and indicators that point to it being overvalued, such as a relative strength index rating of 70.46, signaling that it has been overbought and both its price-to-sales and price-to-book ratio being higher than the industry average, according to The Motley Fooll CAPs, Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) looks to be a promising stock for the Foolish investor to book profits from writing cover call options and still keep the shares.

The article Cover Calls Attractive with Market High originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jonathan Yates.

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