Note that today is an ex dividend day, so it will be another 3 months until the next one. Not that anyone is here for the 4% annual yield when this can be up or down 20% in the span of two to three months, but it provides some consolation for bag holders. (Not to mention last November, shareholders got a bonus 12.4% paid out in stock in a different company, VTRS, an event which did not tank PFE; it surged 6 points. Viatris itself also went up, but is now lower.)
It is normal for a blue chip to be down a little on the day holders capture a quarterly dividend, but there is obviously more at play here today than the 39 cents per share. That morning dip let me sell another cash covered put. Which is one way you could play it, if you are interested in squeezing more than the dividend out of a divided-paying blue chip. The July 37 puts were up to 90 cents; that is worth more than two quarterly dividends, and you close that trade in no more than 10 weeks (and a day). If it goes down and finishes under 37 on July 16, you become the proud owner of 100 shares and are in line for the actual dividend (which this one tends to raise every year) a few weeks later; then you can look to sell a covered call. Make sure that premium is worth at least one quarterly dividend (and the strike price is no less than the strike where you entered), and you will collect a year’s worth of dividends in a quarter of the time.
Eventually, if you get impatient during the downswings or grossly underestimate the strength and duration of rallies, you will sell too soon and too cheaply, and kick yourself for doing so. However, looking over the course of two years of trading PFE, I see that I have sold calls 29 times and only had shares called away 9 times, all the while collecting those quarterly bonuses they call dividends.
