Enterprise Products Partners heads into its July 28 quarterly report with options traders at their most bullish in at least a year, even as the stock drifts modestly lower on the week.
The clearest signal in this note is in options positioning. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.20 — nearly at its 52-week low of 0.195 — and is running about 1.5 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.26. That means calls are far outnumbering puts relative to recent norms. The skew has been building steadily since mid-June, when the ratio was sitting closer to 0.28–0.30. Whatever concern options participants had earlier in the quarter has largely unwound.
The lending market tells a straightforward story: there is nothing aggressive happening in short positioning. Short interest is a nominal 0.76% of the free float — low by any standard — and it fell roughly 5% over the week. Borrow availability is ample at around 418% of shares currently borrowed, meaning there are more than four shares available to lend for every one already out. Cost to borrow is running at just 0.52%, a benign level even after roughly doubling since early June. The 52-week peak for borrow tightness was 67.5% — today's reading at under 23% is far below that stress level. Shorts are not building here; if anything, they have been retreating since late June when short shares dropped sharply from around 17.4 million to the current 16.5 million.
The Street has been quietly lifting targets since Q1 results in late April, though most upgrades cluster around the $40–$44 range. JP Morgan raised to $41, Citi lifted to $44, and Wells Fargo upgraded to Overweight with a $42 target — all in the six weeks following the April print. The consensus mean sits at $41.25 against a current price of $36.76, implying roughly 12% upside from here on average. It is worth noting that Morgan Stanley maintained an Underweight rating while raising its target to $43 — which is both above the current price and above several Buy-rated targets, a slightly paradoxical signal on valuation. The EV/EBITDA multiple has eased slightly over the past month, down from around 10.40 to 10.33, and the P/E has compressed from roughly 13.3 to 12.1 — consistent with a stock where earnings expectations have risen faster than price. The forward EPS growth score ranks in the 91st percentile, one of EPD's strongest factor readings. The dividend score ranks in the 98th percentile, which reflects the MLP's consistency as a distribution payer. Quality metrics are softer — as noted in recent analysis, thin free cash flow conversion is a persistent gap versus pipeline peers like ET and MPLX.
Among the closest correlated peers, OKE fell 1.3% on the week and ENB dropped 2.9%, while PAGP and PAA moved higher by roughly 1.8% and 1.6% respectively. EPD's 1% weekly decline lands near the middle of that range — neither a laggard nor a standout. The last earnings print on April 28 produced a 1.5% gain on the day and a 0.7% gain over the following five sessions, both modest moves that reflect the stock's characteristically low volatility around results.
What to watch into July 28 is whether the unusually bullish options skew holds or rebalances — a shift back toward the 20-day average put/call ratio of 0.26 would suggest conviction is fading, while a continued drift toward the 52-week call-heavy extreme would signal that options participants are leaning firmly into the Q2 numbers.
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