NRC Long Put Strategy
NRC (National Research Corporation), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Information Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
National Research Corporation provides analytics and insights that facilitate measurement and enhancement of the patient and employee experience in the United States and Canada. Its portfolio of subscription-based solutions provides actionable information and analysis to healthcare organizations across a range of mission-critical, constituent-related elements, including patient experience, service recovery, care transitions, health risk assessments, employee engagement, reputation management, and brand loyalty. The company also offers market insights solutions that allow the tracking of awareness, perception, and consistency of healthcare brands; assessment of competitive differentiators; and enhanced segmentation tools to evaluate needs, wants, and behaviors of communities through real-time competitive assessments and enhanced segmentation tools. In addition, it provides experience solutions, such as patient and resident experience, workforce engagement, health risk assessments, transitions, and improvement tools. Further, the company offers health risk assessment solutions that enable clients to segment populations and manage care for those who are most at risk, engage individuals, enhance preventative care, and manage wellness programs; and transitions solutions, which enable organizations to identify and manage high-risk patients to reduce readmissions, enhance patient satisfaction and support safe care transitions. Additionally, it provides transparency solutions that allow healthcare organizations to share picture of their organization and ensure content informs in consumer decision-making; and governance solutions for not-for-profit hospital and health system boards of directors, executives, and physician leadership.
NRC (National Research Corporation) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Information Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $420.8M, a trailing P/E of 45.05, a beta of 0.34 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 11.014-22.79, average daily share volume of 100K, a public-listing history dating back to 2013, approximately 368 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 0.34 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 45.05 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 long put on NRC?
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 NRC snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $18.58, ATM IV 43.50%, IV rank 5.02%, expected move 12.47%. The long put on NRC 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 put structure on NRC specifically: NRC IV at 43.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a NRC long put, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.47% (roughly $2.32 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 NRC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NRC should anchor to the underlying notional of $18.58 per share and to the trader's directional view on NRC stock.
NRC long put setup
The NRC 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 NRC near $18.58, the first option leg uses a $18.58 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 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 NRC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $18.58 | N/A |
NRC long put 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 equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
NRC long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long put 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 long put on NRC
Long puts on NRC hedge an existing long NRC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying NRC exposure being hedged.
NRC thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NRC extends from approximately $16.26 on the downside to $20.90 on the upside. A NRC long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long NRC position with one put per 100 shares held. Current NRC IV rank near 5.02% 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 43.50%. 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 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. 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. Long-premium structures like a long put on NRC 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 NRC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on NRC?
- A long put on NRC is the long put strategy applied to NRC (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 NRC stock trading near $18.58, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NRC chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NRC 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 NRC long put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 43.50%), 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 long put?
- The breakeven for the NRC long put 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 NRC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 12.47%; 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 NRC?
- Long puts on NRC hedge an existing long NRC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying NRC exposure being hedged.
- How does current NRC implied volatility affect this long put?
- NRC ATM IV is at 43.50% with IV rank near 5.02%, 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.