Edison International reports Q2 earnings on July 30 with short sellers nudging back into the stock even as the options market pulls back from last week's defensive peak.
Short interest has climbed roughly 9.5% over the past week to reach 4.1% of the free float — a notable reversal after weeks of steady decline noted in prior coverage. That move is worth flagging but not overstating: the absolute level remains modest, and the lending market offers no friction whatsoever. Availability is extraordinarily loose at more than 20x current short interest, and the cost to borrow has actually fallen sharply — down 29% on the week to just 0.35%. Bears may be adding exposure, but they face no squeeze risk and no meaningful cost to hold the position.
Options positioning has eased since the prior earnings preview. The put/call ratio has pulled back to 1.15, down from 1.27 a week ago, and now sits less than a third of a standard deviation above its 20-day average of 1.12. That's still modestly defensive, but the alarm has quieted. PCG slipped 1.4% on the day while XEL fell 1.2%, suggesting the broader utility peer group softened on Tuesday — EIX's 1.5% gain into the close at $79.79 bucked that trend, carrying the stock up 5.4% over the past month.
The analyst community remains divided in a way that makes the valuation picture awkward. The Street's mean price target is $76.46 — actually below the current price. Barclays raised its target to $78 in mid-July while maintaining Overweight, but Morgan Stanley holds an Underweight with a $70 target, and JPMorgan's Neutral stance has a $76 ceiling. The bulls point to EIX's growth credentials — revenue expansion running around 13% year-on-year — and a dividend yield near 4.6%, which ranks in the 92nd percentile among peers on ORTEX's factor scoring. The bears remain anchored to California wildfire liability overhang and regulatory uncertainty in EIX's Southern California service territory, a theme that has weighed on the stock's valuation relative to regulated peers with cleaner risk profiles.
The Q2 print will test whether management can offer enough clarity on wildfire cost recovery and the California regulatory timeline to justify a stock price that has now moved ahead of most analyst targets.
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