UHS Long Call Strategy
UHS (Universal Health Services, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Care Facilities industry), listed on NYSE.
Universal Health Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals, and outpatient and behavioral health care facilities. The company operates through Acute Care Hospital Services and Behavioral Health Care Services segments. Its hospitals offer general and specialty surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, emergency room care, radiology, oncology, diagnostic and coronary care, pediatric services, pharmacy services, and/or behavioral health services. As of February 24, 2022, it owned and/or operated 363 inpatient facilities, and 40 outpatient and other facilities located in 39 states; Washington, D.C.; the United Kingdom; and Puerto Rico. The company also provides commercial health insurance services; and various management services, which include central purchasing, information, finance and control systems, facilities planning, physician recruitment, administrative personnel management, marketing, and public relations services. Universal Health Services, Inc. founded in 1978 and is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
UHS (Universal Health Services, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Care Facilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $10.71B, a trailing P/E of 6.87, a beta of 1.13 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 152.33-246.33, average daily share volume of 828K, a public-listing history dating back to 1981, approximately 78K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how UHS stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.13 places UHS roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 6.87 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. UHS pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a long call on UHS?
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 UHS snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $167.82, ATM IV 31.50%, IV rank 24.68%, expected move 9.03%. The long call on UHS 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 UHS specifically: UHS IV at 31.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a UHS long call, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.03% (roughly $15.16 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 UHS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on UHS should anchor to the underlying notional of $167.82 per share and to the trader's directional view on UHS stock.
UHS long call setup
The UHS 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 UHS near $167.82, the first option leg uses a $170.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed UHS 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 UHS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $170.00 | $5.55 |
UHS long call risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$555.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$555.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $175.55
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Max profit is unbounded; max loss equals the premium paid times 100. Breakeven is strike plus premium.
UHS long call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long call on UHS. 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% | -$555.00 |
| $37.11 | -77.9% | -$555.00 |
| $74.22 | -55.8% | -$555.00 |
| $111.32 | -33.7% | -$555.00 |
| $148.43 | -11.6% | -$555.00 |
| $185.53 | +10.6% | +$998.41 |
| $222.64 | +32.7% | +$4,708.89 |
| $259.74 | +54.8% | +$8,419.38 |
| $296.85 | +76.9% | +$12,129.86 |
| $333.95 | +99.0% | +$15,840.34 |
When traders use long call on UHS
Long calls on UHS express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of UHS catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
UHS thesis for this long call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for UHS extends from approximately $152.66 on the downside to $182.98 on the upside. A UHS 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 UHS IV rank near 24.68% 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 UHS at 31.50%. As a Healthcare name, UHS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to UHS-specific events.
UHS 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. UHS positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move UHS alongside the broader basket even when UHS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long call on UHS 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 UHS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long call on UHS?
- A long call on UHS is the long call strategy applied to UHS (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 UHS stock trading near $167.82, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed UHS chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are UHS 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 UHS long call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 31.50%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$555.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a UHS long call?
- The breakeven for the UHS long call priced on this page is roughly $175.55 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 UHS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 9.03%; 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 UHS?
- Long calls on UHS express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of UHS catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
- How does current UHS implied volatility affect this long call?
- UHS ATM IV is at 31.50% with IV rank near 24.68%, 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.