UNF Collar Strategy
UNF (UniFirst Corporation), in the Industrials sector, (Specialty Business Services industry), listed on NYSE.
UniFirst Corporation provides workplace uniforms and protective work wear clothing in the United States, Europe, and Canada. The company operates through U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning, and First Aid segments. It designs, manufactures, personalizes, rents, cleans, delivers, and sells a range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, and aprons; and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. The company also rents and sells industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility service products, and dry and wet mops; restroom and cleaning supplies comprising air fresheners, paper products, gloves, masks, sanitizers, and hand soaps; and other textile products. In addition, it provides first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies; decontaminates and cleans work clothes, and other items that is exposed to radioactive materials; and services special cleanroom protective wear and facilities. Further, it offers a range of garment service options, including full-service rental programs in which garments are cleaned and serviced; lease programs in which garments are cleaned and maintained by individual employees; and purchase programs to buy garments and related items directly.
UNF (UniFirst Corporation) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Specialty Business Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.69B, a trailing P/E of 32.98, a beta of 0.63 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 147.66-283.77, average daily share volume of 311K, a public-listing history dating back to 1984, approximately 16K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how UNF stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.63 indicates UNF has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. UNF pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on UNF?
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.
Current UNF snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $262.44, ATM IV 23.50%, IV rank 3.10%, expected move 6.74%. The collar on UNF 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 collar structure on UNF specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed UNF IV at 23.50% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.74% (roughly $17.68 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 UNF expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on UNF should anchor to the underlying notional of $262.44 per share and to the trader's directional view on UNF stock.
UNF collar setup
The UNF 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 UNF near $262.44, the first option leg uses a $280.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed UNF 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 UNF shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $262.44 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $280.00 | $2.48 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $250.00 | $3.23 |
UNF collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$26,319.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $1,681.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$1,319.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $263.19
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.274
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.
UNF collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on UNF. 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% | -$1,319.00 |
| $58.04 | -77.9% | -$1,319.00 |
| $116.06 | -55.8% | -$1,319.00 |
| $174.09 | -33.7% | -$1,319.00 |
| $232.11 | -11.6% | -$1,319.00 |
| $290.14 | +10.6% | +$1,681.00 |
| $348.16 | +32.7% | +$1,681.00 |
| $406.19 | +54.8% | +$1,681.00 |
| $464.22 | +76.9% | +$1,681.00 |
| $522.24 | +99.0% | +$1,681.00 |
When traders use collar on UNF
Collars on UNF hedge an existing long UNF 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.
UNF thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for UNF extends from approximately $244.76 on the downside to $280.12 on the upside. A UNF collar hedges an existing long UNF 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 UNF IV rank near 3.10% 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 UNF at 23.50%. As a Industrials name, UNF options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to UNF-specific events.
UNF 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. UNF positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move UNF alongside the broader basket even when UNF-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current UNF chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on UNF?
- A collar on UNF is the collar strategy applied to UNF (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 UNF stock trading near $262.44, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed UNF chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are UNF 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 UNF collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 23.50%), the computed maximum profit is $1,681.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$1,319.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a UNF collar?
- The breakeven for the UNF collar priced on this page is roughly $263.19 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 UNF market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 6.74%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on UNF?
- Collars on UNF hedge an existing long UNF 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 UNF implied volatility affect this collar?
- UNF ATM IV is at 23.50% with IV rank near 3.10%, 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.