Why this matters: Short sellers in Energy Transfer LP have cut positions sharply in the past week. The borrow market now signals near-zero demand to short the stock. That shift sits alongside a stock up 3% on the week and $24+ analyst targets from every major firm that has updated since earnings.
Short interest dropped 22% in a single week. It now sits at 0.76% of free float — the lowest level in months. At under 1% of float, this is not a high-conviction short thesis unwinding. It is a residual position being abandoned.
The borrow market confirms this. Cost to borrow fell 71% over the past week to just 0.13%. That is the cheapest it has been in recent history. There is no scarcity of supply. Availability stands at 8,119% of short interest — meaning roughly 81 shares are available to borrow for every one currently lent out. Shorts are not being squeezed out. They are simply leaving.
Earlier this week, the put/call ratio had climbed to 0.203 — more than two standard deviations above its 20-day mean. That post-earnings defensiveness has faded. The PCR now sits at 0.195, just 1.16 standard deviations above the mean. The 52-week high is 0.31. Hedging demand has normalised.
The prior note from August 8 flagged that investors were "paying for downside protection at a rate they were not before the print." That impulse has largely passed.
ET is up 3% on the week and 6.6% over the past month to $20.95. The stock has been recovering since the Q2 print on August 4-5, which produced muted single-day moves (+0.3% and +1.7%) but triggered a coordinated wave of analyst target raises — Truist, TD Cowen, Citigroup, and Barclays all raised targets in the days following. The consensus mean target is $24.39, still 16% above the current price.
The short unwind is consistent with that picture. Sentiment has shifted post-earnings. The borrow market is not fighting the tape.
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