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Weekly Option Windfall: Leading Medical Imaging Giant Offers Attractive Entry

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GE HealthCare Technologies embodies the balance between innovation and essential, real-world impact. Spun off from General Electric in early 2023, the company has quietly built momentum, delivering consistent performance in a space where reliability matters as much as cutting-edge advancement.

GEHC stock rose approximately 45% off the April lows last year, recovering from earlier tariff-related volatility. Trading near $83 per share as of mid-January 2026, I see continued appeal for patient investors seeking exposure to structural growth in diagnostics and digital health.

The Zacks Rundown

The company is part of the Zacks Medical – Products industry group, which ranks in the top 42% out of approximately 250 Zacks Ranked Industries. Because it is ranked in the top half of all Zacks Ranked Industries, we expect this group to outperform the market over the next 3 to 6 months.

This industry is also showing favorable characteristics as we can see below. Stocks in this group are relatively undervalued based on traditional valuation metrics and are also expected to experience above-average earnings growth, which signifies a powerful combination that should lead to higher prices in the future:

Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Historical research studies suggest that approximately half of a stock’s price appreciation is due to its industry grouping. In fact, the top 50% of Zacks Ranked Industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Post-spin-off, GE HealthCare Technologies benefited from a cleaner focus, shedding conglomerate distractions to emphasize precision care. Last year proved pivotal: Revenue growth accelerated to mid-single digits organically, driven by demand for AI-enabled tools and consumables.

A key driver has been GEHC's push into digital solutions, aligning with broader industry shifts toward predictive diagnostics and workflow optimization. Innovations like the Revolution Apex CT platform and AI integrations in ultrasound gained traction, helping hospitals improve efficiency amid staffing shortages and rising patient volumes.

While there are many ways to take advantage of a potentially bullish move in GEHC stock, options provide us with flexibility, enabling us to tailor our strategy to the current market environment.

Option Essentials

Before we analyze today’s trade, let’s review some option fundamentals as a refresher. There is no need to worry about complex mathematical formulas or equations. Over the years I’ve found that the more complicated a strategy is, the less likely it is to work over the long run.

Options are standardized contracts that give the buyer the right – but not the obligation – to buy or sell the underlying stock at a fixed price, which is known as the strike price. A call option gives the buyer the right to buy a particular security, while a put option gives the buyer the right to sell the same. The investor who purchases an option, whether a put or call, is the option buyer, while the investor who sells a put or call is the seller or writer.

These contracts are valid for a specific period of time which ends on expiration day. There are weekly options, monthly options, and even LEAPS options which are longer-term options that have an expiration date of greater than one year.

Options consist of time value and intrinsic value. In-the-money options consist of both components; at-the-money and out-of-the-money options consist only of time value. At options expiration, options lose all time value.

Below we’re going to explore a call option purchase strategy.

Multiply Your GEHC Returns

GEHC (GEHC - Free Report) stock is in a confirmed price uptrend and is a good candidate for a call option purchase. When done correctly, trading options provides huge profit opportunities with limited risk.

In today’s trade, we’re going to target the February 20th expiration date and the 72.5-strike price. Purchasing this option gives us the right, but not the obligation, to buy 100 shares of GEHC stock at $72.5 on or before February 20th, which is a bit over 1 month from now.

The table below displays the risk/reward profile for this trade. GEHC stock is currently trading at $83.03 (orange box). We are purchasing 1 February 20 72.5-strike call at 10.8 points, which is the option premium. Since options account for 100 shares of the underlying stock, the total cost for this call option trade is $1,080 as we can see in the yellow highlighted box.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The top (blue) row shows the performance of GEHC stock based on different percentage scenarios at expiration. The bottom (purple) row shows the corresponding percentage return for our call option trade. We can see that if GEHC remains flat, this trade would encounter a minor loss of 2.5%. If GEHC moves up 5%, this trade will realize a 35.9% profit. If GEHC advances 15%, we would realize a 112.8% profit.

This illustration shows the inherent leverage that options provide. A stock investor who bought 100 shares of GEHC would have to contribute $8,303 which is a much bigger investment. A 15% increase in the stock price would yield a $1,245 profit.

On the other hand, in this example the option trader only needs to contribute $1,080 to control the same amount of underlying GEHC shares. A 15% move in GEHC stock would net a $1,218 option profit – a nearly identical profit amount with only about one-eighth of the investment!

Also note that this option contains relatively little time value. The 0.27 points worth of time value (red box) equate to just 0.3% of the underlying stock price. A good way to manage risk when buying call options is to minimize time value and maximize intrinsic value, as time value decays rapidly in the days leading up to option expiration.

Bottom Line

The rise of GEHC reflects its strong positioning in imaging, ultrasound, patient monitoring, and pharmaceutical diagnostics—segments that form the backbone of modern healthcare. GE HealthCare Technologies could very well be in store for a period of outperformance.

A great way to take advantage of this move is via low-risk call options. This allows us to leverage GEHC stock returns with the power of options.


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