CAH Long Put Strategy
CAH (Cardinal Health, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Distribution industry), listed on NYSE.
Cardinal Health, Inc. operates as an integrated healthcare services and products company in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and patients in the home. The company operates in two segments, Pharmaceutical and Medical. The Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded and generic pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and over-the-counter healthcare and consumer products. The segment also provides services to pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare providers for specialty pharmaceutical products; operates nuclear pharmacies and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities; repackages generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter healthcare products; and offers medication therapy management and patient outcomes services to hospitals, other healthcare providers, and payers, as well as provides pharmacy management services to hospitals. The Medical segment manufactures, sources, and distributes Cardinal Health branded medical, surgical, and laboratory products and devices that include exam and surgical gloves; needles, syringe, and sharps disposals; compressions; incontinences; nutritional delivery products; wound care products; single-use surgical drapes, gowns, and apparels; fluid suction and collection systems; urology products; operating room supply products; and electrode product lines.
CAH (Cardinal Health, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Distribution, with a market capitalization of approximately $43.64B, a trailing P/E of 28.09, a beta of 0.54 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 137.75-233.6, average daily share volume of 1.8M, a public-listing history dating back to 1983, approximately 58K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CAH stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.54 indicates CAH has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. CAH pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a long put on CAH?
A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration.
Current CAH snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $196.19, ATM IV 26.82%, IV rank 39.05%, expected move 7.69%. The long put on CAH below is built from the same end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 28-day expiry.
Why this long put structure on CAH specifically: CAH IV at 26.82% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.69% (roughly $15.08 on the underlying). The 28-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CAH expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CAH should anchor to the underlying notional of $196.19 per share and to the trader's directional view on CAH stock.
CAH long put setup
The CAH long put below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CAH near $196.19, the first option leg uses a $195.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CAH chain at a 28-day expiry; the cross-strike IV skew is reflected directly in the per-leg values rather than approximated. Quantity sizing assumes one contract per option leg (or 100 CAH shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $195.00 | $4.95 |
CAH long put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$495.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $19,004.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$495.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $190.05
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 38.392
Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
CAH long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long put on CAH. Each row is one sampled price point from the computed payoff curve; the full curve uses 200 price points internally before being summarized into 10 rows here.
| Underlying Price | % From Spot | P&L at Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| $0.01 | -100.0% | +$19,004.00 |
| $43.39 | -77.9% | +$14,666.24 |
| $86.77 | -55.8% | +$10,328.48 |
| $130.14 | -33.7% | +$5,990.72 |
| $173.52 | -11.6% | +$1,652.96 |
| $216.90 | +10.6% | -$495.00 |
| $260.28 | +32.7% | -$495.00 |
| $303.65 | +54.8% | -$495.00 |
| $347.03 | +76.9% | -$495.00 |
| $390.41 | +99.0% | -$495.00 |
When traders use long put on CAH
Long puts on CAH hedge an existing long CAH stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying CAH exposure being hedged.
CAH thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CAH extends from approximately $181.11 on the downside to $211.27 on the upside. A CAH long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long CAH position with one put per 100 shares held. Current CAH IV rank near 39.05% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the long put thesis on CAH should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Healthcare name, CAH options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CAH-specific events.
CAH long put positions are structurally bearish; the modeled P&L assumes European-style exercise at expiration and ignores early assignment, transaction costs, dividends paid before expiry on the stock leg (when present), and the bid-ask spread on the listed chain. CAH positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CAH alongside the broader basket even when CAH-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long put on CAH are particularly exposed to IV-crush risk through scheduled events (earnings, FDA decisions, central-bank meetings) where IV typically contracts post-event regardless of the directional outcome. Always rebuild the position from current CAH chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on CAH?
- A long put on CAH is the long put strategy applied to CAH (stock). The strategy is structurally bearish: A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration. With CAH stock trading near $196.19, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CAH chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CAH long put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the CAH long put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 26.82%), the computed maximum profit is $19,004.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$495.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CAH long put?
- The breakeven for the CAH long put priced on this page is roughly $190.05 at expiration, derived from end-of-day chain premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The current CAH market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.69%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a long put on CAH?
- Long puts on CAH hedge an existing long CAH stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying CAH exposure being hedged.
- How does current CAH implied volatility affect this long put?
- CAH ATM IV is at 26.82% with IV rank near 39.05%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.