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Selling a put does not give an investor access to ISRG'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 $360 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 Intuitive Surgical Inc sees its shares decline 26.9% and the contract is exercised (resulting in a cost basis of $333.00 per share before broker commissions, subtracting the $27.00 from $360), the only upside to the put seller is from collecting that premium for the 3.4% annualized rate of return.
Below is a chart showing the trailing twelve month trading history for Intuitive Surgical Inc, and highlighting in green where the $360 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 January 2017 put at the $360 strike for the 3.4% annualized rate of return represents good reward for the risks. We calculate the trailing twelve month volatility for Intuitive Surgical Inc (considering the last 252 trading day closing values as well as today's price of $491.83) to be 37%. For other put options contract ideas at the various different available expirations, visit the ISRG Stock Options page of StockOptionsChannel.com.
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