MSBI Analysts Lift Targets as Short Sellers Build Ahead of Q2 Print

Midland States Bancorp heads into its July 30 Q2 earnings report with a notable disconnect: analysts are lifting price targets in real time, yet short sellers have been quietly building positions at a pace that stands out for a stock this size.

The short interest angle is worth taking seriously here. Shorts have climbed 46% over the past month, reaching 4.0% of the free float — a meaningful move for a regional bank with a $32.83 stock price that has itself rallied 6.4% on the week. The borrow market, however, tells a different story from the scale of that build: cost to borrow remains minimal at 0.58%, and availability is exceptionally loose at nearly 2,900% of short interest, meaning lenders have shown no stress absorbing the incremental demand. Options positioning reinforces the bullish lean — the put/call ratio has collapsed to just 0.017, almost 1.5 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.22, and is sitting near its 52-week low. Call demand is dominating, not hedging.

The analyst community has moved in the same direction. On the day before earnings, both Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and DA Davidson raised their price targets — KBW to $31 and DA Davidson to $33 — while maintaining neutral ratings. Piper Sandler raised its target to $32 a month ago. The consensus mean target is $32.50, essentially in line with where the stock is trading, which explains the neutral ratings: the Street sees the recovery as largely priced in. Bulls point to the loan sale reducing credit costs, cost-cutting tailwinds, and a strengthening core community banking focus. Bears counter that the NIM expansion looks hard to sustain and that fee income growth is slowing — concerns that have driven downward EPS revisions even as price targets moved up.

The factor score picture adds texture. The 90-day EPS momentum rank is near the top of the universe at the 98th percentile, and EPS surprise sits in the 91st percentile — suggesting the company has consistently delivered relative to expectations. The 30-day EPS momentum rank, however, is only in the 25th percentile, pointing to more recent estimate cuts pulling in the other direction. Earnings history shows the stock moved up 4.5% the day after the most recent comparable print and gained over 8% after the April 23 release, with five-day follow-through exceeding 12% on that occasion. Peer regional banks — HBNC, FMBH, and BHB — were broadly flat to up 3-4% on the week, suggesting MSBI's 6.4% weekly gain reflects stock-specific optimism rather than a sector-wide lift.

The print will test whether the recent NIM and fee income trajectory justifies a stock that has already rallied more than 50% year-to-date, with analysts fully updated yet still sitting on the fence at neutral ratings right at the current price.