Trade Continuation: Altria Group (MO) Covered Call

Today in a taxable account with MO at 27.65 and the DOW down 16 I continued the following transaction:

1. 9/6/11  Bought 200 MO @ 26.57                                               -5323.63
2. 9/6/11  STO 2 MO Oct 22 27's @ .54                                            +96.50
3. 10/11   Dividend                                                                           +82.00
4. 10/21  BTC 2 MO Oct 22 27's @.50                                             -111.52
5. 10/21  STO 2 MO Nov 19 27's @.95                                           +178.47
6. 11/17  BTC 2 MO Nov 19 27's @.72                                            -155.52
7. 11/17  STO 2 MO Jan 21 27's @1.15                                           +218.47

With these transactions I have the amount invested down to $5015.23 or $25.07/share. Altria goes ex-dividend December 23rd. If we don't get called out we will receive an additional $82 and we will lower our amount invested to $4933.23 or $24.66/share.  I'm happy if we do get called out as that will make $364 in  15 weeks or ~6.9% which equates to ~23.9% annually. That's a nice return for such a conservative investment. I'm just as happy not getting called out, collecting the dividend and writing new calls sometime in the future.

Altria Group is a great stock for enhanced income, double dividend investment strategies. I would wait to enter a new position, however, until the stock is in the bottom one quarter to one third of it's trading cycle.