Alkermes enters the week with a notable tension: short sellers are rebuilding positions aggressively into a stock that has already lost nearly 5% over the past month, while options traders are rotating away from the defensive stance they held just weeks ago.
The short-interest story is the clearest signal this week. Shorts have added roughly 10% to their position in just five sessions, pushing SI to almost 9% of free float — a meaningful level for a mid-cap biotech. The rebuild is striking in context: SI peaked above 18 million shares in early July and fell sharply through late July and into August, dropping as low as 13.4 million shares. That unwind has now reversed, with shorts adding back roughly 1.5 million shares across the past week alone. The borrow market, however, shows no sign of strain. Availability is running at over 600% — meaning there are roughly six shares available to borrow for every one currently shorted — and cost to borrow is just 0.53%, barely above its 30-day level. Shorts face no squeeze pressure at these availability readings. The short score has also climbed steadily through the week, reaching 58 on August 13, its highest point in the 10-day series, which confirms the directional build.
Options positioning tells a contrasting story. The put/call ratio has eased to 0.51, slightly below its 20-day average of 0.57 and comfortably off the elevated readings above 0.75 that dominated mid-July trading. That shift suggests options market participants have grown less defensive since the Q2 earnings report on July 28, even as short sellers head the other way. The PCR z-score of -0.73 places current positioning mildly below average on the defensive spectrum. The 52-week high of 3.18 on the PCR shows that at the peak of pessimism earlier in the year, the put market was far more loaded — the current reading is not alarming.
The Street has been uniformly lifting targets since the Q2 print, though ratings remain mixed. JP Morgan reinstated with Neutral in mid-July and raised its target to $61 after earnings. Piper Sandler raised its target sharply, to $65 from $43, while maintaining Overweight. Baird moved to $58 from $48 on an Outperform rating. Bank of America, however, downgraded to Underperform with a $38 target in late June — and that single bearish call is what keeps the consensus from looking one-sided. The mean price target of $56 implies roughly 14% upside from the current $49.06 price. The PE multiple has compressed about 6 points over the past 30 days and now trades near 30x, while EV/EBITDA is around 20x. Factor scores reflect the mixed picture: 30-day EPS momentum ranks in the 93rd percentile, a standout, but EPS surprise ranks in just the 9th, and the short-score rank sits in the 26th percentile, consistent with an elevated and rising short position.
The Q2 earnings print delivered the largest recent data point on how the stock behaves under pressure. The stock fell 8.3% the next day and was still down 5.8% five sessions later — a meaningful negative reaction to results. The prior quarter produced a 4.5% single-day drop. That pattern, two consecutive earnings-day declines, is part of what makes the short rebuild this week plausible: shorts may be positioning for a repeat ahead of the October 29 Q3 report. Institutional holders are broadly passive — BlackRock holds 17.4% and State Street added around 200,000 shares through July — but insider selling has been consistent, with the CMO, CLO, and a director all selling in recent weeks. Net insider value sold over 90 days is over $5 million.
The key dynamic to watch is whether the short rebuild continues at pace or stalls as the stock approaches the $48–$49 support zone, and whether options traders follow short sellers into a more defensive stance ahead of October earnings.
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