BHP Heads Into Results With Borrow Near Fully Tapped

BHP reports its full-year results on August 17 with the lending market for its ADR telling an unusually tight story heading into the print.

Borrow availability has been running near the floor for weeks. For most of July and into early August, availability sat below 2% — meaning nearly every share in the lending pool was already lent out, the tightest conditions in the past year. A modest release of supply lifted availability to 12.8% by August 12, but the context matters: the 52-week minimum touched 0.02%, and the lending market spent the majority of the past six weeks at or near fully tapped. Cost to borrow has eased from a peak above 2.9% in early July to around 1.3% now, but that decline reflects some pressure coming off rather than a genuinely loose market. Short interest jumped nearly 20% over the past week to around 17.3 million shares, partially reversing a month-long decline — a move that aligns with the borrow tightness seen through most of that period.

Options positioning has shifted notably more defensive over the past month. The put/call ratio climbed from below 0.60 in mid-July to 0.93 now — almost matching the 52-week high of 1.14 reached at the start of August before pulling back slightly. That rotation from calls to puts mirrors the stock's own trajectory: BHP fell 3.2% on August 13 alone, paring a solid 7% monthly gain to leave the ADR at $87.23. The stock is essentially flat on the week, but the options market is carrying more downside protection than it has all year.

The analyst debate is genuinely split, and the price target data reflects real divergence. BofA Securities, the most recent voice of note, trimmed its target to $91 in late June while holding a Neutral rating — above the current price, but the direction was down. Bernstein carried a $48 target as of March, and Berenberg has a Sell with a $44 target, both well below where BHP trades today. On the bullish side, Argus upgraded to Buy in December 2025 with a $68 target. The spread between the most bearish and most bullish published targets spans nearly $50, which makes consensus almost irrelevant — the disagreement is about whether iron ore exposure is a value opportunity or a structural drag. BHP's 12-month forward EPS estimate growth ranks in the 99th percentile on ORTEX factor scores, a striking number for a miner, but EPS surprise ranks in just the 20th percentile, meaning it has consistently missed. That tension between strong estimate revision and weak delivery is precisely what the August 17 print will resolve.

Past reactions add one more layer of texture. The May 2026 result saw the stock slip 1.5% on the day before recovering strongly — up nearly 11% over the following five sessions. The February 2026 print produced a similar pattern: a modest initial gain followed by an 8-9% five-day rally. Whether the setup — tighter borrow, more put protection, and a stock sitting 3% lower on the day before results — produces a different outcome is the question the print is positioned to answer.