TTM Technologies has added 15% in a week, crossed $200 for the first time, and yet short sellers are responding by pressing harder — a divergence that makes this one of the more interesting setups in electronic manufacturing right now.
The short interest story has moved on since last week's note. What was then a cautious rebuild has become a more deliberate add: short interest climbed another 12% over the past five trading sessions to 4.24% of the free float, hitting 4.38 million shares — the highest level in the 30-day window. The one-month increase now stands at nearly 17%. Cost to borrow has eased slightly, down 6% on the week to 0.44%, confirming this isn't a forced-borrow situation. Availability remains vast — roughly 1,730% of short interest, meaning lenders have no trouble accommodating new shorts at current price levels. Options traders are not joining the cautious camp: the put/call ratio at 0.38 barely nudges above its 20-day average of 0.36, sitting nowhere near defensive territory. The ORTEX short score has drifted higher through the week, reaching 36.4 from 34.6 ten days ago — a modest but consistent grind. The picture that emerges is of shorts adding conviction into a surging price, with the borrow market entirely willing to facilitate them, and options traders largely unbothered.
The Street has been uniformly bullish and has chased targets higher after each earnings beat. Following the April 29 print — which sent the stock up 15% in a single session — Stifel raised its target from $175 to $205, Truist lifted from $180 to $215, Needham moved to $208, and B. Riley went to $208. Last week, Needham reiterated Buy at $208, keeping the consensus price target near $209, within reach of the current $199 close. The mean target implies modest upside at these levels, and that is precisely the bulls' problem: the valuation has compressed the margin of safety. The PE has expanded roughly 4 points over the past month to 42.7x, and EV/EBITDA at 28.1x has come down 4 points over the same period as earnings estimates rise faster than the stock. The EPS momentum factor score is exceptional — 92nd percentile on 30-day momentum, 83rd on 90-day — which supports the bull case that the estimate revision cycle is still running. The bear case rests on valuation and competitive risk: overbuild concerns in the PCB market and heavy reliance on commercial RF components leave the company exposed if the macro backdrop softens.
Peer behaviour on the week supports some of the sector-level enthusiasm but not the magnitude of TTMI's move. ROG rose 14% and AEIS gained 12%, while JBL and PLXS added 3-4%. FN fell 7.5% on the day Tuesday, illustrating that high-multiple electronics names remain sensitive to any change in sentiment. TTMI's 15% weekly gain sits at the top of the group — the stock is running fastest even as shorts add at the fastest pace in a month.
Insider activity adds a mild countercurrent. The 90-day net insider figure shows sales: the most recent filing, from early May, shows a director sold 16,800 shares at $157 — well below the current price. Routine scheduled sales across multiple executives have been the pattern since February, none particularly alarming in size, but the absence of any buying into a stock that has since risen another 30% from those levels is a quiet data point.
The next scheduled earnings date is July 29. With the stock trading near the analyst consensus target and short sellers still adding into the rally, the July print — and whatever guidance TTM gives on A&D demand and RF component pricing — is where the tension between the two camps gets resolved.
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