Shareholders of Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) have the opportunity to enhance their income by selling a January 2028 covered call at a $230 strike price, which offers a premium of $14.00. This strategy could yield an annualized return of 6.4%, combining the existing 2.3% dividend yield with an additional 4.1% from the call option, provided the stock is not called away. The current stock price is $173.00, meaning a price increase of 32.9% would result in the shares being called.
In mid-afternoon trading on Monday, put volume for S&P 500 components reached 692,500 contracts, while call volume totaled 1.42 million, resulting in a put:call ratio of 0.49. This is significantly lower than the long-term median ratio of 0.65, indicating a strong preference among traders for call options.
