Interparfums heads into its May 5 earnings print with a notable divergence: the founder-CEO sold shares just weeks ago, while short sellers have been unwinding positions at a brisk pace.
Short interest has dropped roughly 6% over the past week, pulling the SI % of free float down to 7.65% from 8.1% a month ago. That absolute level remains meaningful — just under one share in thirteen on the free float is short — but the direction of travel shifted markedly in the last few trading sessions. The most recent cluster of short selling ran at a fairly consistent 8%+ of free float through most of April before a step-change lower on April 23. Borrowing conditions reinforce the picture: the cost to borrow is down 10% over the week to 0.50% annualised, about as cheap as stock-specific borrows get. Borrow availability remains ample, with the lending pool well-supplied relative to demand. There is no squeeze pressure here. Options positioning has also eased off its most defensive extreme. The put/call ratio is at 2.05, below its 20-day average of 2.55, and well off the levels above 3.5 that characterised early April when macro anxiety was at its peak. That normalisation in the put/call ratio aligns with the short covering — both suggest the most bearish positioning has been trimmed ahead of the print.
The Street is split, and the valuation makes the tension legible. BWS Financial has held a Neutral rating at an $85 price target, reiterated just last week — a target that sits below where the stock currently trades at $90.42. Jefferies sits on the other side, having initiated with a Buy and a $112 target in January. The consensus mean of $108 implies roughly 19% upside from current levels, though the stock is down about 1.7% over the past week and flat over the past month. Valuation multiples have compressed modestly: the EV/EBITDA has edged down roughly 0.2x over the past week to about 10x, and the P/E has softened to around 17.8x. Neither figure looks extreme for a profitable consumer brand with licensing characteristics. Factor scores are mixed — EPS momentum ranks in the 64th percentile over 30 days, and the EV/EBIT score ranks in the 75th percentile, suggesting the earnings quality picture is broadly constructive. The forward EPS growth rank is a notable outlier at just the 6th percentile, which maps directly to the bear case: delayed returns on extended licensing contracts for major brands until 2028–2030 could weigh on nearer-term earnings.
The ownership picture adds a layer of nuance. The co-founders — Chairman and CEO Jean Madar and President Philippe Benacin — together hold over 43% of shares. Madar trimmed 20,000 shares at $91 on April 2, raising approximately $1.8 million. That follows Benacin's own $2.1 million sale in December at $83. Institutional holders are broadly stable: BlackRock added 54,000 shares through March, Vanguard added 63,000, and Dimensional added 73,000. First Trust Advisors made the largest reported addition at 129,000 shares. The pattern of passive and quantitative managers adding while the founders trim is not unusual for a stock that has de-rated meaningfully from the $130–170 range seen in 2025, but the CEO's April sale, executed near the current trading range, is worth noting in the context of next week's print.
Post-earnings reactions have been muted on the day but soft into the week. The most recent earnings event in February produced a near-flat 1-day response before the stock dropped over 8% in the following five sessions. That pattern — a non-event at announcement followed by a delayed drift lower — is the template that puts sellers on alert. Peers have had a harder week: ELF dropped nearly 7% and EPC fell 5.2% over the same period, suggesting sector-level pressure rather than any IPAR-specific story. COTY was the standout exception, gaining 2.6% on the week.
The setup for May 5 is therefore one of moderately elevated but easing bearish positioning, founder selling at current levels, and a Street divided on whether the licensing pipeline delay is already priced in. The key variable in next week's release is not just the Q1 revenue number — the bull case projects $345 million — but management's commentary on when the 2028–2030 pipeline contracts begin to translate into tangible earnings growth.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open IPAR on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
