NRC Collar Strategy
NRC (NRC Health), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Information Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
National Research Corporation (NRC) empowers healthcare organizations across the United States and Canada with data-driven analytics and actionable insights to enhance both patient and employee experiences. Through a comprehensive suite of subscription-based solutions, NRC supplies crucial information and analysis, addressing vital aspects such as the overall patient journey, service recovery initiatives, effective transitions of care, health risk assessments, fostering employee engagement, and enhancing reputation management and brand loyalty. Beyond these, NRC provides market intelligence to help organizations understand brand awareness, public perception, and competitive positioning. They offer advanced segmentation tools to analyze community needs, wants, and behaviors in real-time. Specialized health risk assessment tools are available to help clients pinpoint and support high-risk populations, fostering preventative care strategies and wellness initiatives. Similarly, transition management solutions assist in identifying and managing at-risk patients during care changes, aiming to reduce readmissions and ensure smooth, satisfactory transitions.
NRC (NRC Health) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Information Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $464.5M, a trailing P/E of 77.45, a beta of 0.37 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 11.014-23.68, average daily share volume of 113K, a public-listing history dating back to 2013, approximately 357 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NRC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.37 indicates NRC 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 77.45 is on the rich side, which tends to correlate with higher earnings-window IV expansion as the market debates whether forward growth supports the multiple. NRC pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on NRC?
A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot.
NRC snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $21.04, ATM IV 38.10%, IV rank 6.59%, expected move 10.92%. The collar on NRC below is built from the end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 35-day expiry.
Why this collar structure on NRC specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed NRC IV at 38.10% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.92% (roughly $2.30 on the underlying). The 35-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated NRC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NRC should anchor to the underlying notional of $21.04 per share and to the trader's directional view on NRC stock.
NRC collar setup
The NRC collar below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With NRC at $21.04 on that close, the first option leg uses a $22.09 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NRC chain at a 35-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 NRC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $21.04 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $22.09 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $19.99 | N/A |
NRC collar 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 roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium.
NRC collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on NRC. 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 collar on NRC
Collars on NRC hedge an existing long NRC stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
NRC thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NRC extends from approximately $18.74 on the downside to $23.34 on the upside. A NRC collar hedges an existing long NRC position with a protective put while financing the put cost via a short call; when the premiums roughly offset, the collar acts as a near-zero-cost insurance band around the current spot. Current NRC IV rank near 6.59% 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 NRC at 38.10%. As a Healthcare name, NRC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NRC-specific events.
NRC collar positions are structurally neutral (protective); 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. NRC positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NRC alongside the broader basket even when NRC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current NRC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on NRC?
- A collar on NRC is the collar strategy applied to NRC (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral (protective): A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot. With NRC stock at $21.04 on the most recent close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NRC chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NRC collar max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium. For the NRC collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.10%), 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 NRC collar?
- The breakeven for the NRC collar priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve at expiration, derived from the end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The NRC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 10.92%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on NRC?
- Collars on NRC hedge an existing long NRC stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
- How does current NRC implied volatility affect this collar?
- NRC ATM IV is at 38.10% with IV rank near 6.59%, 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.