Collect 22% On VRT Stock Now, And Still Keep 25% Of Upside

For Vertiv owners, here is a trade that pays you a meaningful income today, which you keep no matter what, just for agreeing to sell your high-flying shares at an even higher price.

After a blistering +143% run over the past year, Vertiv (VRT) shareholders might be wondering what comes next for the AI infrastructure powerhouse. The stock trades around $304.04 a share, and while it has cooled a bit recently, it’s still a massive winner. This presents a classic dilemma: lock in some gains, or let it ride? Here’s a third option that pays you cash now for making that decision ahead of time.

22% annualized income on VRT shares you already own, with 25% of upside room, by selling a covered call.

• You own (or buy) 100 shares of VRT near today’s price of $304.04.
• Sell one call option on VRT expiring 6/17/2027, with a strike price of $380, about 25% above today.
• Collect roughly $6,003 in premium up front per contract (each contract covers 100 shares), which you keep no matter what the stock does.
• That premium is about 22% annualized on the $30,404 of stock, income you earn just for holding.
• If VRT finishes above $380, your shares are called away at $380. Counting the premium, your total return works out to about 51% annualized, but you give up any gains above the strike.

Both Outcomes Put Cash In Your Pocket

If VRT finishes below $380 on 6/17/2027, the call expires worthless, and you keep the full $6,003 premium and all your shares. That is about 20% over 329 days, income earned just for holding, and you are free to sell another call.

If VRT finishes above $380, your 100 shares are called away at $380. You still keep the $6,003 premium, and counting it your total gain works out to about 45% over the holding period (about 51% annualized), a healthy exit. The cost of the trade is that any gain above $380 is no longer yours. And if the stock instead falls, you keep the premium but still ride the shares down, cushioned only slightly.

So the whole trade comes down to one thing: how much of that upside are you really likely to give up, and would you be content to sell at that higher price?

Would You Be Happy To Sell VRT Higher?

The only real cost to this trade is the one you have to settle in your own mind: how much more upside are you really giving up? The bull case is straightforward. This is a company firing on all cylinders, having just raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $6.35, which would represent stunning 51% growth from the prior year. Management sees a sustained demand environment and is aggressively expanding capacity to meet it. In this scenario, the stock keeps climbing, and your shares get called away at a nice, but capped, profit.

But the path to that growth isn’t a straight line. That rosy full-year forecast hinges on a major second half acceleration, particularly in its EMEA region, where organic sales just fell 29%. While management has expressed strong conviction in a recovery, it’s a steep climb. The very act of ramping up production is also creating near-term margin pressure. For an investor who sees these hurdles and would be perfectly happy with a solid, defined return, getting paid an immediate income to cap that uncertain blue-sky potential might be the smartest trade on the board. The thing to watch is that EMEA sales figure; its recovery, or lack thereof, will tell the tale.

What Income Could Your Own Stocks Pay?

You may not own VRT, but you almost certainly own something that could be paying you. Our Covered Call Finder lets you type in a stock, or a few, and instantly see the income a covered call could generate on each, then dial the strike up or down with a slider to balance more income against more upside. It is the quickest way to see what the names in your own portfolio could pay.

One step out from a single name: an industrials ETF like XLI owns the whole industrials group at once, so no single company can sink you. It still rises and falls with that one theme, which is exactly the gap the portfolio below closes.

Income From A Big Position Does Not Shrink The Position

Selling calls generates income from a holding you already own, which makes now the right moment to check how large that holding has actually become. That check is exactly what the Trefis Wealth team provides, with the same rules-based systematic discipline that runs our High Quality Portfolio. Request a free vulnerability audit of your biggest positions.