Eight firms raised price targets on STT in the week following Q2 results. That wave of upgrades is now the dominant force shaping the stock's data profile — and three signals have converged to confirm it.
The scale of the post-earnings target revision cycle is unusual. In a single week, Keefe Bruyette & Woods raised its target from $195 to $215. Wells Fargo moved from $196 to $215. Citigroup lifted to $210. Evercore ISI followed on July 20, raising to $200. In total, eight firms raised targets between July 17 and July 20, every one maintaining or reiterating a positive-leaning rating.
The mean consensus price target now sits at $198.63. The stock closed at $184.21 on July 23. That implies roughly 8% upside to the average target — a meaningful reversal from the pre-earnings situation, when the stock had actually run through most analyst targets before results were published.
EPS momentum confirms the direction. The 30-day EPS momentum factor ranks in the 94th percentile. The 90-day reading sits at the 87th percentile. Estimates are moving up, not down.
Short interest sits at 1.81% of free float — low by any measure. But the direction matters. Shorts fell roughly 11% in the week through July 20, as bearish conviction evaporated alongside the post-earnings analyst upgrade wave.
The options market reflects the same shift. The put/call ratio stands at 0.71, below its 20-day mean of 0.68 — call positioning remains elevated relative to the recent past. The PCR had been drifting lower through June and into July, as the bull case gathered traction before earnings confirmed it.
Against that bullish backdrop, one data point cuts the other way. Cost to borrow jumped 75% in the past week to 0.51% — the highest since late June. Availability has tightened to 5,435% — still very loose in absolute terms, and far above levels that would signal genuine borrow stress. For context, the availability metric would need to fall below roughly 200% before the lending market could be described as tight.
The CTB move is worth flagging, but the context is important: this is a stock with 1.81% short interest and an enormous lending pool. A 75% week-on-week rise in borrow cost from a very low base does not indicate squeeze pressure. It may simply reflect short-term demand fluctuations in a thin borrow market for a name where very few investors are short.
CEO Ronald O'Hanley sold 14,553 shares on July 21 at $184.17, realising $2.68 million. The HR Director sold the same day. Both transactions carry a low significance score of 2. Routine scheduled sales at a 42% YTD gain are not an unusual pattern.
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