HCAT Long Call Strategy
HCAT (Health Catalyst, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Information Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations. Its offerings include data and analytics platform, a commercial-grade data and analytics platform for the healthcare sector; AI and data science, providing integration of AI into existing business intelligence tools, increasing analytics accuracy; population health management identifies improvement across the care continuum as well as actionable guidance for success and automated workflows; financial transformation providing costing and labor productivity insights and revenue capture; quality and safety improvement using clinical quality and patient safety data, analytics, and expert services; and national data ecosystem for thought leadership and mutual knowledge exchange to transform care delivery through next-gen insights. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is based in South Jordan, Utah.
HCAT (Health Catalyst, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Information Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $99.0M, a beta of 1.63 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 0.955-4.291, average daily share volume of 796K, a public-listing history dating back to 2019, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HCAT stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.63 indicates HCAT has historically moved more than the broader market, amplifying both the directional payoff and the realized volatility relative to an index-equivalent position.
What is a long call on HCAT?
A long call buys upside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes above the strike plus premium at expiration.
Current HCAT snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $1.19, ATM IV 27.90%, IV rank 3.90%, expected move 8.00%. The long call on HCAT 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 34-day expiry.
Why this long call structure on HCAT specifically: HCAT IV at 27.90% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a HCAT long call, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.00% (roughly $0.10 on the underlying). The 34-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated HCAT expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HCAT should anchor to the underlying notional of $1.19 per share and to the trader's directional view on HCAT stock.
HCAT long call setup
The HCAT long call below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With HCAT near $1.19, the first option leg uses a $1.19 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HCAT chain at a 34-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 HCAT shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $1.19 | N/A |
HCAT long call risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- N/A
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Breakeven(s)
- None on modeled curve
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- N/A
Max profit is unbounded; max loss equals the premium paid times 100. Breakeven is strike plus premium.
HCAT long call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long call on HCAT. 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.
When traders use long call on HCAT
Long calls on HCAT express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of HCAT catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
HCAT thesis for this long call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HCAT extends from approximately $1.09 on the downside to $1.29 on the upside. A HCAT long call expresses a directional view that the underlying closes above the strike plus premium at expiration, ideally with implied volatility holding or expanding to preserve extrinsic value through the hold period. Current HCAT IV rank near 3.90% sits in the lower third of its 1-year distribution, where IV often re-expands toward the mean; this favors premium-buying structures and disadvantages premium-selling structures on HCAT at 27.90%. As a Healthcare name, HCAT options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HCAT-specific events.
HCAT long call positions are structurally bullish; 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. HCAT positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HCAT alongside the broader basket even when HCAT-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long call on HCAT 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 HCAT chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long call on HCAT?
- A long call on HCAT is the long call strategy applied to HCAT (stock). The strategy is structurally bullish: A long call buys upside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes above the strike plus premium at expiration. With HCAT stock trading near $1.19, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HCAT chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HCAT long call max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit is unbounded; max loss equals the premium paid times 100. Breakeven is strike plus premium. For the HCAT long call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 27.90%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is unbounded per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a HCAT long call?
- The breakeven for the HCAT long call priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve 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 HCAT market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.00%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a long call on HCAT?
- Long calls on HCAT express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of HCAT catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
- How does current HCAT implied volatility affect this long call?
- HCAT ATM IV is at 27.90% with IV rank near 3.90%, which is on the low end of its 1-year range. Premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are relatively cheap in this regime; premium-selling structures collect less credit per unit risk.