Time To Squeeze 14% Yield Out Of Battered BSX Stock

For long-suffering owners of Boston Scientific, here's how to get paid a meaningful cash income now, yours to keep no matter what, in exchange for capping your gains at a higher price.

Boston Scientific (BSX) has had a punishing year, with the stock trading about 54% below its 52-week high after a guidance cut soured the market's mood. For shareholders staring at a sea of red and wondering what comes next, there is a way to generate a real cash income from your shares today. It's paid the moment you make the trade, and it's yours to keep whether the stock goes up, down, or sideways from here.

14% annualized income on BSX shares you already own, with 10% of upside room, by selling a covered call.

• You own (or buy) 100 shares of BSX near today's price of $49.86.
• Sell one call option on BSX expiring 9/17/2027, with a strike price of $55, about 10% above today.
• Collect roughly $735 in premium up front per contract (each contract covers 100 shares), which you keep no matter what the stock does.
• That premium is about 13.8% annualized on the $4,986 of stock, cash you collect upfront in exchange for capping your upside.
• If BSX finishes above $55, your shares are called away at $55. Counting the premium, your total return works out to about 23% annualized, but you give up any gains above the strike.

Both Outcomes Put Cash In Your Pocket

If BSX finishes below $55 on 9/17/2027, the call expires worthless, and you keep the full $735 premium and all your shares. That is about 15% over 388 days, income earned just for holding, and you are free to sell another call.

If BSX finishes above $55, your 100 shares are called away at $55. You still keep the $735 premium, and counting it your total gain works out to about 25% over the holding period (about 23% annualized), a healthy exit. The cost of the trade is that any gain above $55 is no longer yours. And if the stock instead falls, you keep the premium but still ride the shares down: the premium offsets the first 15% of the decline over the holding period and nothing beyond it.

Is BSX Likely To Run Past Your Strike?

The bull case for BSX is a story about patience. Management points to a major re-acceleration driven by "7 new meaningful launches that exceed about a $25 billion TAM"-but that catalyst is slated for 2028, well after this September 2027 option expires. For the actual window of this trade, management is bracing for "limited adjusted EPS growth" in 2027, making a sharp rally past your $55 strike far less likely before expiration. We took a closer look at the stock's potential after its steep decline in a separate piece.

But the reason you're getting paid to cap that upside is the messy here-and-now. The company's two former growth engines, WATCHMAN and Electrophysiology (EP), have hit a wall. Management's "guidance reduction is concentrated" in these areas, citing a market for its WATCHMAN device that has "slowed sharply and unexpectedly" and unforeseen "competitive share movement" in EP.

This isn't a story that screams V-shaped recovery. Management itself is bracing for "limited adjusted EPS growth " in 2027, suggesting a long grind before any potential turnaround. That makes the trade-off strong: collect a guaranteed cash payment now in exchange for selling your shares at a profit if the recovery happens sooner than expected. The decision hinges on the stability of the company's core. Watch the performance of the 75% of the business outside of the troubled WATCHMAN and EP segments. As long as that base holds its "historical performance" of steady growth, it provides a floor while the company works to reignite its former stars.

Find The Covered-Call Income On Your Holdings

You may not own BSX, 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: a healthcare ETF like XLV owns the whole healthcare 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 One Name, Stability From Many

Getting paid to cap the upside on a stock you own is a smart way to squeeze income from it. But a single covered call, and even a single-theme fund, still rides one slice of the market. What steadies a portfolio is breadth across sectors, where a rough stretch for one industry is offset by a good one elsewhere.

The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio provides that breadth: roughly 30 quality, cash-generative companies spanning sectors, judged on the full picture of their fundamentals rather than one options setup, and re-balanced as conditions change. It carries a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the three major indices - the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. Keep collecting premium on individual names, with a cross-sector core doing the heavy lifting.