Featured MNV Articles:

Agree To Buy Ameriprise Financial At $300, Earn 2.7% Annualized Using Options

Play Video: How To Sell A PUT If the video does not load after a few moments, Upgrade to the Latest Flash Player.

Free Email Alerts By Stock: Get Dividend Alerts Get SEC Filing Alerts

Investors eyeing a purchase of Ameriprise Financial Inc (NYSE:AMP) shares, but cautious about paying the going market price of $375.52/share, might benefit from considering selling puts among the alternative strategies at their disposal. One interesting put contract in particular, is the November 2024 put at the $300 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of $7.30. Collecting that bid as the premium represents a 2.4% return against the $300 commitment, or a 2.7% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost).

Start slideshow:
Top YieldBoost Puts of the S&P 500 »

Selling a put does not give an investor access to AMP'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. And the person on the other side of the contract would only benefit from exercising at the $300 strike if doing so produced a better outcome than selling at the going market price. (Do options carry counterparty risk? This and six other common options myths debunked). So unless Ameriprise Financial Inc sees its shares fall 20% and the contract is exercised (resulting in a cost basis of $292.70 per share before broker commissions, subtracting the $7.30 from $300), the only upside to the put seller is from collecting that premium for the 2.7% annualized rate of return.

Interestingly, that annualized 2.7% figure actually exceeds the 1.4% annualized dividend paid by Ameriprise Financial Inc by 1.3%, based on the current share price of $375.52. And yet, if an investor was to buy the stock at the going market price in order to collect the dividend, there is greater downside because the stock would have to lose 20.03% to reach the $300 strike price.

Always important when discussing dividends is the fact that, in general, dividend amounts are not always predictable and tend to follow the ups and downs of profitability at each company. In the case of Ameriprise Financial Inc, looking at the dividend history chart for AMP below can help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue, and in turn whether it is a reasonable expectation to expect a 1.4% annualized dividend yield.

Below is a chart showing the trailing twelve month trading history for Ameriprise Financial Inc, and highlighting in green where the $300 strike is located relative to that history:

The chart above, and the stock's historical volatility, can be a helpful guide in combination with fundamental analysis to judge whether selling the November 2024 put at the $300 strike for the 2.7% annualized rate of return represents good reward for the risks. We calculate the trailing twelve month volatility for Ameriprise Financial Inc (considering the last 250 trading day closing values as well as today's price of $375.52) to be 26%. For other put options contract ideas at the various different available expirations, visit the AMP Stock Options page of StockOptionsChannel.com.

In mid-afternoon trading on Monday, the put volume among S&P 500 components was 2.12M contracts, with call volume at 2.12M, for a put:call ratio of 0.71 so far for the day, which is above normal compared to the long-term median put:call ratio of .65. In other words, if we look at the number of call buyers and then use the long-term median to project the number of put buyers we'd expect to see, we're actually seeing more put buyers than expected out there in options trading so far today. Find out which 15 call and put options traders are talking about today.