MMS Cash-Secured Put Strategy
MMS (Maximus, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Specialty Business Services industry), listed on NYSE.
Maximus, Inc. provides business process services (BPS) to government health and human services programs. It operates through three segments: U.S. Services, U.S. Federal Services, and Outside the U.S. The U.S. Services segment offers various BPS solutions, such as program administration, appeals and assessments, and related consulting works for U.S. state and local government programs, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, child support programs, Preadmission Screening and Resident Reviews, and Independent Developmental Disability assessments.
MMS (Maximus, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Specialty Business Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.12B, a trailing P/E of 8.69, a beta of 0.60 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 57.32-100, average daily share volume of 725K, a public-listing history dating back to 1997, approximately 41K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how MMS stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.60 indicates MMS has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 8.69 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. MMS pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a cash-secured put on MMS?
A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike.
Current MMS snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $59.05, ATM IV 40.60%, IV rank 4.90%, expected move 11.64%. The cash-secured put on MMS 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 63-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on MMS specifically: MMS IV at 40.60% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling MMS cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 11.64% (roughly $6.87 on the underlying). The 63-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated MMS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on MMS should anchor to the underlying notional of $59.05 per share and to the trader's directional view on MMS stock.
MMS cash-secured put setup
The MMS cash-secured 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 MMS near $59.05, the first option leg uses a $55.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed MMS chain at a 63-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 MMS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $55.00 | $2.18 |
MMS cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$217.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $217.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$5,281.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $52.83
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.041
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
MMS cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on MMS. 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% | -$5,281.50 |
| $13.07 | -77.9% | -$3,975.98 |
| $26.12 | -55.8% | -$2,670.46 |
| $39.18 | -33.7% | -$1,364.95 |
| $52.23 | -11.5% | -$59.43 |
| $65.29 | +10.6% | +$217.50 |
| $78.34 | +32.7% | +$217.50 |
| $91.40 | +54.8% | +$217.50 |
| $104.45 | +76.9% | +$217.50 |
| $117.51 | +99.0% | +$217.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on MMS
Cash-secured puts on MMS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MMS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MMS.
MMS thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for MMS extends from approximately $52.18 on the downside to $65.92 on the upside. A MMS cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire MMS at the strike price; the strategy is most attractive when the trader is comfortable holding the underlying at that level and IV is rich enough to compensate for the assignment risk. Current MMS IV rank near 4.90% 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 MMS at 40.60%. As a Industrials name, MMS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to MMS-specific events.
MMS cash-secured put positions are structurally neutral to slightly 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. MMS positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move MMS alongside the broader basket even when MMS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on MMS carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical MMS earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current MMS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on MMS?
- A cash-secured put on MMS is the cash-secured put strategy applied to MMS (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral to slightly bullish: A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike. With MMS stock trading near $59.05, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed MMS chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are MMS cash-secured put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the MMS cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 40.60%), the computed maximum profit is $217.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$5,281.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a MMS cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the MMS cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $52.83 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 MMS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.64%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a cash-secured put on MMS?
- Cash-secured puts on MMS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MMS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MMS.
- How does current MMS implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- MMS ATM IV is at 40.60% with IV rank near 4.90%, 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.