Monday, July 13, 2009

Volume 3, Issue #63

Also in Today's Issue...

Participate in the Upside
Each one of these oddball securities has their own quirks, but they all allow you to participate in the current tech recovery by tracking the gains of the underlying common stock.

Take for example, the Merrill Lynch Callable 12% STRIDES on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AVN. The STRIDES are paying a yield of 11.8% at current prices, and they're also closely tracking the heady share price gains of the maker of Mac computers and Ipods.

On March 6th, AAPL hit bottom at $82.33. The STRIDES, which were issued at $25, traded at $16.39. As AAPL rallied from March into mid-May, so did the STRIDES. APPL hit a recovery peak of $131.12 on May 5th. The Strides traded as high as $25.05. In other words, Apple common rallied approximately +59% between March and May. The gain in the STRIDES was almost proportional at +53%.

Here's why they move in lockstep. The STRIDES mature in September 2009. At that time, they automatically convert to Apple shares in the ratio of 0.18750778 per AAPL share for every STRIDE held. So, when AAPL traded for $131.12, the STRIDE was worth $24.59 (0.18750778 x $131.12). When you add the $0.75 quarterly dividend the STRIDES paid out during this period, you get a total equivalent value of $25.34, slightly above the $25.05 trading price.

Protect Your Downside
Of course, volatility cuts both ways. Income investors who have not frequently ventured into Nasdaq's domain need to be aware of both the risks and benefits of tech's share price volatility as measured by beta.

The Nasdaq 100 index, for instance, has a beta of 1.14. That means for every point the S&P 500 moves, the tech-heavy index will move 1.14 or 14% more. Individual tech stocks can have a higher or lower beta: Apple's beta is an enormous 1.58, CSCO's 1.26, Google's 1.17, while NYSE-listed IBM is a very placid 0.76.

Even so, the beauty of these hybrid products is they participate in the upside of the common shares, but protect your downside risk.

Let's go back to AVN. On August 13, 2008, just before the financial carnage of last fall, AAPL traded at $180.00. The STRIDES at that time were $26.93. From the August 13th peak to March 6th low, AAPL shares lost -$97.67 ($180.00-$82.33) or -54.3%.

Meanwhile, the STRIDES traded as high as $26.93 on August 13th. Their peak to trough decline, however, was only -39.1%, so an investor would have been relatively better off holding the STRIDES rather than the underlying stock.

Return of Principal
Almost all the upside and not much of the downside -- how is that possible? The beauty of these stock/bond hybrids is they trade like stock but provide a double safety net of high yield and return of some principal at maturity like bonds.

STRIDES and ELKS are similar, but STRIDES are generally issued for two years and ELKS for one. I prefer the STRIDES because you can lock in a high yield for twice the time of an ELK, and if the underlying stock declines, it has a longer market cycle to recover. Also, STRIDES typically make their payments quarterly, whereas with ELKS it's semi-annually. However, not all stocks have STRIDES; ELKS are a very close second.

Yield Safety
Payouts on these STRIDES and ELKS are considered senior debt payments. They constitute a legal obligation for the company, unlike dividends which are discretionary. As senior, unsecured debt, payments and principal have a prior claim on the company's assets above common and preferred stock, in case the company runs into trouble.

STRIDES are a product of Merrill Lynch, acquired by the Bank of America (NYSE: BAC); ELKS are issued by Citigroup Funding, a subsidiary of Citigroup (NYSE: C).

For a while in the fall of 2008, there was some question about the solvency of both banks, but since then they appear to have been deemed "too big to fail." The question of their insolvency, and hence their not making the debt payments on their STRIDES and ELKS, now appears to have been taken off the table.

Both Citigroup and Bank of America are seeking to convert some of their preferred share issues into common stock to raise cash. Their STRIDES and ELKS, however, are not in question.

Good Investing!

-- Carla Pasternak
Editor
High-Yield Investing

P.S. -- In my July issue of High-Yield Investing I compile a list of my favorite ELKS, STRIDES, and CORTS with yields of 10.5%, 11.0%, and even 11.8%. To get the names of the securities and more information on High-Yield Investing click here.

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