Ormat Technologies walks into its August 6 earnings release carrying a month-long slide in its stock, rising short interest, and a put-heavy options market — though the lending side of that short positioning remains comfortably loose.
The most telling signal is short interest momentum. Bearish positioning has climbed 15% over the past month, with shorts now controlling 9.1% of the free float — roughly 5.5 million shares. The weekly pace has picked up too, adding another 3.4% in the last five sessions. Despite that accumulation, the borrow market is far from stressed: availability runs at 234%, meaning more than two shares are sitting available for every one already lent out, and cost to borrow is a modest 0.58%. Shorts are building, but they are doing so cheaply and without friction. Options sentiment reinforces the cautious lean. The put/call ratio is running at 1.42 against its 20-day average of 1.24 — elevated, but only modestly above the norm at half a standard deviation above average, and well below the 52-week high of 1.78 touched in late June. The stock itself dropped 2.1% Wednesday and is down nearly 13% over the past month, closing at $98.02, even as it clawed back about 4% over the week.
The bull and bear cases here are genuinely distinct. Bulls point to the Product segment, where the order backlog surged 79% year-on-year to $295 million as of the last report, and the company subsequently raised full-year revenue guidance into the $960–$980 million range. The forward earnings growth score ranks at the 100th percentile in the ORTEX factor model — the strongest possible reading for estimate trajectory. Bears counter that electricity revenue has been the problem: the segment posted a year-on-year decline last quarter and dragged gross margins to 25.6%, materially below consensus. The consensus price target of $134 implies roughly 37% upside from current levels, and most of the active analyst community remains constructive — Barclays and UBS both carry positive ratings, as does Piper Sandler with a $142 target. The exception is Bernstein, which initiated coverage at Underperform with a $115 target in June, flagging the margin deterioration as a structural rather than transitory concern. JP Morgan sits neutrally at $123, a level the stock has already traded through on the way down.
Institutional ownership adds a mildly interesting wrinkle. BlackRock remains the dominant holder at 12.5% of shares. Israeli investors — Migdal SAL and Migdal Mutual Funds combined — hold around 6% and have been adding in recent quarters, reflecting Ormat's deep Israeli roots as a company. On the insider side, the CFO sold over $2.7 million of stock in May at prices in the $133–$135 range — well above where the stock trades today — though these were spread across multiple transactions and carry only moderate significance scores.
The print will test whether the electricity segment margin story is stabilising or deteriorating further, and whether the Product backlog growth rate can fully compensate for the weakness that has driven the stock's sharp retreat from its May highs.
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