UNFI Collar Strategy
UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Food Distribution industry), listed on NYSE.
United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Wholesale and Retail. The company offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, nutritional supplements and sports nutrition, bulk and foodservice products, and personal care items. It also provides Woodstock brand imports, roasts, packages, and distributes nuts, dried fruits, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections. In addition, the company is involved in importing, roasting, packaging, and distributing nuts, dried fruits, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections. Further, it offers Blue Marble Brands products through wholesale segment, third-party distributors, and directly to retailers; and Field Day brand products primarily to customers through its independent channel.
UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Food Distribution, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.18B, a beta of 0.82 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 20.78-53.18, average daily share volume of 721K, a public-listing history dating back to 1996, approximately 28K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how UNFI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.82 places UNFI roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a collar on UNFI?
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 UNFI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $50.93, ATM IV 59.50%, IV rank 34.94%, expected move 17.06%. The collar on UNFI 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 98-day expiry.
Why this collar structure on UNFI specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; mid-range UNFI IV at 59.50% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 17.06% (roughly $8.69 on the underlying). The 98-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated UNFI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on UNFI should anchor to the underlying notional of $50.93 per share and to the trader's directional view on UNFI stock.
UNFI collar setup
The UNFI 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 UNFI near $50.93, the first option leg uses a $55.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed UNFI chain at a 98-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 UNFI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $50.93 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $55.00 | $3.50 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $50.00 | $4.40 |
UNFI collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$5,183.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $317.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$183.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $51.83
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.732
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.
UNFI collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on UNFI. 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% | -$183.00 |
| $11.27 | -77.9% | -$183.00 |
| $22.53 | -55.8% | -$183.00 |
| $33.79 | -33.7% | -$183.00 |
| $45.05 | -11.5% | -$183.00 |
| $56.31 | +10.6% | +$317.00 |
| $67.57 | +32.7% | +$317.00 |
| $78.83 | +54.8% | +$317.00 |
| $90.09 | +76.9% | +$317.00 |
| $101.35 | +99.0% | +$317.00 |
When traders use collar on UNFI
Collars on UNFI hedge an existing long UNFI 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.
UNFI thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for UNFI extends from approximately $42.24 on the downside to $59.62 on the upside. A UNFI collar hedges an existing long UNFI 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 UNFI IV rank near 34.94% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the collar thesis on UNFI should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Consumer Defensive name, UNFI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to UNFI-specific events.
UNFI 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. UNFI positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move UNFI alongside the broader basket even when UNFI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current UNFI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on UNFI?
- A collar on UNFI is the collar strategy applied to UNFI (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 UNFI stock trading near $50.93, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed UNFI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are UNFI 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 UNFI collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 59.50%), the computed maximum profit is $317.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$183.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a UNFI collar?
- The breakeven for the UNFI collar priced on this page is roughly $51.83 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 UNFI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 17.06%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on UNFI?
- Collars on UNFI hedge an existing long UNFI 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 UNFI implied volatility affect this collar?
- UNFI ATM IV is at 59.50% with IV rank near 34.94%, 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.