ULTA Covered Call Strategy
ULTA (Ulta Beauty, Inc.), in the Consumer Cyclical sector, (Specialty Retail industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Ulta Beauty, Inc. functions as a prominent beauty product retailer throughout the United States. Its physical locations feature a broad assortment of goods, including cosmetics, perfumes, skincare, haircare items, bath and body essentials, and professional salon styling instruments. Additionally, they provide a comprehensive suite of salon services, encompassing hair, skin, makeup, brow, and nail treatments. The company further offers its proprietary label products, such as the Ulta Beauty Collection for cosmetics, skincare, and bath items, alongside other Ulta Beauty branded merchandise and gift options. As of March 10, 2022, Ulta Beauty operated 1,308 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states. Its products are also available for purchase via its website, ulta.com, and through its mobile applications.
ULTA (Ulta Beauty, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically Specialty Retail, with a market capitalization of approximately $21.00B, a trailing P/E of 17.99, a beta of 0.86 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 448.57-714.97, average daily share volume of 777K, a public-listing history dating back to 2007, approximately 20K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ULTA stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.86 places ULTA roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a covered call on ULTA?
A covered call pairs long stock with a short out-of-the-money call, collecting premium and capping upside above the short strike in exchange for income.
Current ULTA snapshot
As of June 30, 2026, spot at $448.74, ATM IV 37.63%, IV rank 43.21%, expected move 10.79%. The covered call on ULTA 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 31-day expiry.
Why this covered call structure on ULTA specifically: ULTA IV at 37.63% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a ULTA covered call sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.79% (roughly $48.41 on the underlying). The 31-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated ULTA expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ULTA should anchor to the underlying notional of $448.74 per share and to the trader's directional view on ULTA stock.
ULTA covered call setup
The ULTA covered 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 ULTA near $448.74, the first option leg uses a $470.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ULTA chain at a 31-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 ULTA shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $448.74 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $470.00 | $12.25 |
ULTA covered call risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$43,649.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $3,351.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$43,648.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $436.49
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.077
Max profit equals short-strike minus cost basis plus premium times 100; max loss is cost basis minus premium (at zero). Breakeven is cost basis minus premium.
ULTA covered call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the covered call on ULTA. 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% | -$43,648.00 |
| $99.23 | -77.9% | -$33,726.22 |
| $198.45 | -55.8% | -$23,804.44 |
| $297.66 | -33.7% | -$13,882.66 |
| $396.88 | -11.6% | -$3,960.88 |
| $496.10 | +10.6% | +$3,351.00 |
| $595.32 | +32.7% | +$3,351.00 |
| $694.53 | +54.8% | +$3,351.00 |
| $793.75 | +76.9% | +$3,351.00 |
| $892.97 | +99.0% | +$3,351.00 |
When traders use covered call on ULTA
Covered calls on ULTA are an income strategy run on existing ULTA stock positions; traders typically sell calls at 25-35 delta with 30-45 days to expiration to balance premium against upside cap.
ULTA thesis for this covered call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ULTA extends from approximately $400.33 on the downside to $497.15 on the upside. A ULTA covered call collects premium on an existing long ULTA position, trading off upside above the short call strike for immediate income; the short strike selection should reflect the trader's view on whether ULTA will breach that level within the expiration window. Current ULTA IV rank near 43.21% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the covered call thesis on ULTA should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Consumer Cyclical name, ULTA options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ULTA-specific events.
ULTA covered call 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. ULTA positions also carry Consumer Cyclical sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ULTA alongside the broader basket even when ULTA-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a covered call on ULTA carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical ULTA earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current ULTA chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a covered call on ULTA?
- A covered call on ULTA is the covered call strategy applied to ULTA (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral to slightly bullish: A covered call pairs long stock with a short out-of-the-money call, collecting premium and capping upside above the short strike in exchange for income. With ULTA stock trading near $448.74, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ULTA chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ULTA covered call max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals short-strike minus cost basis plus premium times 100; max loss is cost basis minus premium (at zero). Breakeven is cost basis minus premium. For the ULTA covered call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 37.63%), the computed maximum profit is $3,351.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$43,648.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ULTA covered call?
- The breakeven for the ULTA covered call priced on this page is roughly $436.49 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 ULTA market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 10.79%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a covered call on ULTA?
- Covered calls on ULTA are an income strategy run on existing ULTA stock positions; traders typically sell calls at 25-35 delta with 30-45 days to expiration to balance premium against upside cap.
- How does current ULTA implied volatility affect this covered call?
- ULTA ATM IV is at 37.63% with IV rank near 43.21%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.