PSKY heads into the final week of June with an unusual mix: short sellers retreating, borrowing costs easing, and yet the stock still losing ground.
The most telling data point this week is the direction of the ORTEX short score. It has fallen from 72.1 on June 15 to 69.1 now — a meaningful eight-session slide that signals the market's bearish conviction on Paramount Skydance is softening. That matters because the score had been running well above average, and the pullback coincides with a genuine unwind: short interest dropped 5.8% over the week to roughly 74.1 million shares. That continues a broader retreat from the late-May peak near 85 million shares. The short score rank of 6 out of 100 — near the bottom of the universe — confirms the bearish positioning is still elevated in absolute terms, even as it eases.
The lending market tells the same story of loosening pressure. Borrow availability has climbed back to 116% — meaning more than one share is available for every share already lent out — up from around 77% just a week ago. That's the loosest the borrow market has been since mid-May. Cost to borrow has fallen sharply too, dropping 32% on the week to 1.2%, after briefly spiking above 3% in mid-June. A cost-to-borrow near 1% is essentially benchmark-rate lending — no meaningful squeeze premium. Options positioning adds a nuance: the put/call ratio at 1.08 is actually slightly below its 20-day average of 1.12, a rare moment where options traders are less defensive than usual despite the stock's slide.
The Street remains divided, and the analyst picture is the clearest structural drag on sentiment. Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight with a $14 target back in late April — a notable call from a bellwether — but Wells Fargo and BofA have maintained Underperform and Underweight ratings respectively, and both cut targets in early May. The mean target of $12.64 implies roughly 30% upside from the current $9.72, but that gap reflects genuine disagreement rather than consensus optimism. The bear case is stark: revenues have fallen 41% since 2021 to $2.4 billion, with subscription, advertising, and licensing all under pressure. Bulls counter with D2C optionality and a strong sports rights portfolio, but the price-to-book near 0.97 and EV/EBITDA near 6.4x don't price in a recovery premium. The 30-day EPS momentum factor ranks in the 78th percentile — a bright spot — though the 90-day reading at just the 21st percentile suggests the improvement is recent and not yet confirmed.
Ownership concentration is the other structural feature worth noting. CEO David Ellison holds 30% of the company, and both he and COO Andy Brandon-Gordon sold shares at $10.76 in early May — roughly 10% above the current price. Those were relatively modest clip sales tied to award settlements rather than large discretionary exits, but the net 90-day insider position is a positive $3.5 million, driven largely by stock awards outweighing sales. The top four holders collectively own over 56% of shares outstanding, which compresses the true float and makes the 74 million short shares a more significant structural overhang than the headline percentage suggests.
Among correlated peers, AMCX gained 1.6% on the week and SBGI added 4%, while PSKY fell 5.7% — a notable underperformance in a week when the broader broadcast group was flat to positive. With the next earnings event pencilled in for August 3, and the last two quarterly prints both delivering single-day drops of around 3.6-3.9%, the weeks ahead will test whether the ongoing short unwind reflects genuine re-rating or simply a tactical pause before the next catalyst.
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