FOXA enters the week carrying one of the most striking short-interest builds in the media sector — nearly 20% of the free float now sold short, up 34% in a single week and 42% over the past month, while the stock has lost 17% to close at $54.87.
The positioning story is the most compelling thing happening here right now. Short interest has jumped from roughly 28–30 million shares through late June to 40.7 million as of July 14 — a move that unfolded almost entirely in the July 9–10 window, when shorts added close to 10 million shares in two sessions. That's a sharp, deliberate build, not a gradual drift. Yet the borrow market tells a notably different story: availability is wide at 261%, meaning there are roughly 2.6 shares available to borrow for every one already lent out, and cost to borrow is negligible at 0.51%. Shorts face no squeeze pressure whatsoever — the lending pool is deep and cheap. Options traders are equally relaxed. The put/call ratio at 0.43 is below its 20-day average of 0.47, sitting well off the 52-week high near 2.9, and the z-score is essentially flat. Whoever is driving the short build, it is not panicked hedging in the options market.
The Street is fractured but tilts constructive — a tension with the short-interest data that is worth naming. The consensus is Buy with nine buy-rated analysts, and the mean price target of $70.81 implies roughly 29% upside from current levels. Wolfe Research upgraded FOXA to Outperform on July 1 with a $71 target, the most recent rating change. That was partly offset by Wells Fargo trimming its target from $71 to $65 five days later, while holding Equal-Weight. Barclays cut to $60 in mid-June. The picture is a split: a handful of analysts see material recovery, while the neutral-rated cohort is quietly shading targets lower. The EV/EBITDA multiple has edged up about 0.1x over the past week to 6.2x, and the P/E at 9.4x — down nearly three full turns over the past month — reflects how much the price drop has compressed valuation. The ORTEX short score at 69.1 jumped sharply from around 65 at the start of July, confirming the acceleration in bearish positioning. The analyst recommendation factor scores in the 99th percentile — an unusually strong gap between the Street's buy-skew and the stock's recent performance.
One institutional detail stands out. State Street added 5.3 million shares as of June 30, bringing its position to 34.3 million — the largest reported move among top holders in the recent period and a notable counterweight to the short build. Lachlan Murdoch holds 20.6% of the company unchanged. Insider activity has been modest: the CLO received an award and sold 10,500 shares in late June, while CEO Murdoch sold roughly 26 million dollars of stock in March, well before the current decline.
The next catalyst is clearly dated: Fox reports earnings August 5. The two most recent prints produced positive reactions — a 5.1% one-day gain after the May 2026 report and 8% after February's release. Both were followed by further gains over the subsequent five-day window. Bulls point to Fox's live sports and news anchor in an ad market where commitments are stickier than for entertainment content. Bears counter that cord-cutting pressure and the shift of advertising budgets toward digital experiences erode the linear model faster than management is letting on, and that competition from prediction markets weighs on the FanDuel/Flutter investment thesis.
With a 34% short-interest build in one week, earnings three weeks away, and borrow still wide and cheap, the setup heading into August 5 is essentially a contest between a crowded short and a Street that still prices in $70+ fair value — worth watching closely as the earnings date approaches.
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