Potential Early Assignment Situations in Yum China Holdings Inc. and Newmont Corporation

There are two Covered Calls positions (Yum China Holdings Inc. and Newmont Corporation) that go ex-dividend this Monday (March 4th, 2024).  Both companies stock prices were substantially in-the-money at yesterday's (i.e. Friday's) market close and with little to no time value now remaining in the Call options, so there was the possibility of early exercise of these positions by the Call options owners.  The original blog posts when these positions were established are detailed here for the Yum China position and here for the Newmont position.

There are 500 shares and 5 March 15th, 2024 $40.00 Calls for my Yum China Holdings Inc. Covered Calls position and Monday's ex-dividend amount is $.16 per share.  The stock price closed yesterday at $42.95 and the Calls closed at $3.00 (at the midpoint of their $2.90/$3.10 Bid/Ask pricing).  Therefore, there was only $.05 time value per share ($40.00 + $3.00 - $42.95) remaining in the Call options and 11 calendar days still remaining until the options expiration date.  I was somewhat surprised that a Call owner did not choose to exercise their option to buy the 500 YUMC shares at the $40.00 strike price and capture Monday's $.16 per share dividend.  But with the stock price now well in-the-money, I am satisfied to be able to capture the dividend myself and also continue with this Yum China Covered Calls position.      

There are 600 shares and 6 March 15th, 2024 $28.50 Calls for my Newmont Corp. Covered Calls position and Monday's ex-dividend is $.25 per share.  Early this morning I was notified by my broker's email that a partial exercise was made.  Four of my six Newmont March 15th, 2024 Calls were exercised early by an owner of those Calls and the other two Calls were not exercised and they remain in my Covered Calls Advisor Portfolio.  

This Newmont stock price closed yesterday at $31.94 and the Calls closed at $3.425 (at the midpoint of their $3.35/$3.50 Bid/Ask pricing).  Therefore, there was $0.00 time value per share remaining in these Call options and still 11 calendar days until the 3/15/2024 options expiration date -- so I was expecting all 600 shares to be assigned.  I am pleased for the 400 shares early assignment since a +68.1% annualized-return-on-investment was achieved for the 5 days duration of this position.  For the remaining 200 shares Covered Calls position, my maximum potential annualized-return-on-investment is also very attractive at +45.1% over the 16 days duration if the Newmont stock price remains in-the-money (i.e. above the $28.50 strike price) at market close on the March 15th, 2024 options expiration date.