National Grid Shorts Steady as Thursday's Print Arrives

National Grid enters its August 20 results with short positioning having stabilised after a brief post-rebuild consolidation, options markets pricing in no alarm, and a stock that has drifted quietly lower over the past month.

The short rebuild flagged in last week's preview has lost momentum rather than accelerated. Estimated short shares edged up just 0.9% over the past week to around 821,000 — a marked deceleration from the 11.6% weekly surge reported earlier. On a month-on-month basis, shorts are still down 10%, so the overall picture remains one of a partial recovery from June's peaks rather than a fresh wave of conviction. Borrow conditions continue to offer bears no resistance. Cost to borrow is a negligible 0.52%, down roughly 40% from a month ago. Availability has tightened somewhat from last week's 254% but remains comfortable at 262% — more than two-and-a-half shares available for every one borrowed. The lending market is not signalling any squeeze pressure.

Options positioning tells an equally calm story heading into the print. The put/call ratio of 0.42 is essentially flat against its 20-day average of 0.42, producing a z-score near zero. That reads as complete neutrality — neither a rush to hedge downside nor any unusual demand for calls. The 52-week range on the PCR runs from 0.26 to 1.40, and the current reading sits in the lower half of that band, suggesting the options market is not treating this as a high-risk event.

The analyst backdrop carries a cautionary tilt, though recent moves are the most relevant signal. Jefferies downgraded to Hold in March and UBS cut to Sell in the same period — both within six months, both meaningful firms — reinforcing a pattern of fading institutional conviction that has been building since mid-2025. The mean price target data is too stale to be reliable for a stock trading at $81, so valuation context is best read through the multiples directly: the PE of 12.7x has compressed roughly 0.5 points over the past 30 days, while EV/EBITDA at 34.7x has drifted modestly lower. Neither signals a dramatic re-rating, just quiet drift. The ORTEX short score of 38.9 has crept up from 35 earlier in the month, ranking in the 76th percentile for short pressure — elevated but not extreme.

The chairman and a non-executive director made modest open-market purchases in May, adding a combined ~1,100 shares near current levels. Against the backdrop of institutional caution and two recent downgrades, that small cluster of buying is a counterpoint worth noting — though at roughly $92,000 in total value, it is unlikely to shift sentiment.

Thursday's print will test whether National Grid can provide enough clarity on its UK regulatory outlook and US infrastructure spending trajectory to justify holding a stock that both Jefferies and UBS have recently walked away from.