USFD Long Call Strategy
USFD (US Foods Holding Corp.), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Food Distribution industry), listed on NYSE.
US Foods Holding Corp., through its subsidiary, US Foods, Inc., markets and distributes fresh, frozen, and dry food and non-food products to foodservice customers in the United States. The company's customers include independently owned single and multi-unit restaurants, regional concepts, national restaurant chains, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and motels, country clubs, government and military organizations, colleges and universities, and retail locations. As of July 06, 2022, it operated 70 broadline facilities; and 80 cash and carry locations. The company was formerly known as USF Holding Corp. and changed its name to US Foods Holding Corp. in February 2016. US Foods Holding Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.
USFD (US Foods Holding Corp.) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Food Distribution, with a market capitalization of approximately $18.75B, a trailing P/E of 27.72, a beta of 0.90 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 69.875-102.13, average daily share volume of 2.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 2016, approximately 30K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how USFD stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.90 places USFD roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a long call on USFD?
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 USFD snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $82.38, ATM IV 25.90%, IV rank 31.18%, expected move 7.43%. The long call on USFD 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 USFD specifically: USFD IV at 25.90% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.43% (roughly $6.12 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 USFD expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on USFD should anchor to the underlying notional of $82.38 per share and to the trader's directional view on USFD stock.
USFD long call setup
The USFD 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 USFD near $82.38, the first option leg uses a $82.50 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed USFD 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 USFD shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $82.50 | $2.70 |
USFD long call risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$270.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$270.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $85.20
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Max profit is unbounded; max loss equals the premium paid times 100. Breakeven is strike plus premium.
USFD long call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long call on USFD. 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% | -$270.00 |
| $18.22 | -77.9% | -$270.00 |
| $36.44 | -55.8% | -$270.00 |
| $54.65 | -33.7% | -$270.00 |
| $72.86 | -11.6% | -$270.00 |
| $91.08 | +10.6% | +$587.78 |
| $109.29 | +32.7% | +$2,409.14 |
| $127.50 | +54.8% | +$4,230.50 |
| $145.72 | +76.9% | +$6,051.85 |
| $163.93 | +99.0% | +$7,873.21 |
When traders use long call on USFD
Long calls on USFD express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of USFD catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
USFD thesis for this long call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for USFD extends from approximately $76.26 on the downside to $88.50 on the upside. A USFD 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 USFD IV rank near 31.18% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the long call thesis on USFD should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Consumer Defensive name, USFD options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to USFD-specific events.
USFD 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. USFD positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move USFD alongside the broader basket even when USFD-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long call on USFD 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 USFD chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long call on USFD?
- A long call on USFD is the long call strategy applied to USFD (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 USFD stock trading near $82.38, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed USFD chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are USFD 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 USFD long call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 25.90%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$270.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a USFD long call?
- The breakeven for the USFD long call priced on this page is roughly $85.20 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 USFD market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.43%; 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 USFD?
- Long calls on USFD express a bullish thesis with defined risk; traders use them ahead of USFD catalysts (earnings, product launches, macro events) when the expected upside justifies the premium and theta decay.
- How does current USFD implied volatility affect this long call?
- USFD ATM IV is at 25.90% with IV rank near 31.18%, 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.