OppFi's founder is buying the dip daily. Shorts are doing the opposite. Options traders are siding with the CEO. Three signals are pointing in three directions — and the tension is building.
Todd Schwartz, OppFi's Founder and Chairman/CEO, has purchased OPFI shares on every single trading day since August 12. The run includes two $420,000+ purchases on August 12 and 13, followed by smaller daily top-ups through August 24. Total net insider buying over 90 days stands at approximately $2.26 million.
The pattern is deliberate. Schwartz is buying into weakness. The stock is down 19% over the past month and remains deeply off its year-to-date highs following a brutal August 10 earnings print that sent shares down nearly 30% in a single session.
One director moved the other way. David Vennettilli sold 28,485 shares on August 19 for roughly $204,000. But Schwartz's sustained accumulation dwarfs that single sale.
Short interest tells a different story. SI hit 13.0% of free float on August 25 — up 15.3% in a single day and 18.2% over the past week. One-month growth is 33.3%. Shares shorted now stand at approximately 3.59 million.
The borrow market is tightening alongside this. Cost to borrow rose to 1.00%, up 72% in one week. Availability has dropped to 111% — down sharply from 176% just a week ago and from above 300% through most of July. The pool is compressing fast.
The earnings catalyst explains the bearish thesis. OppFi reported higher-than-expected delinquencies, weaker originations, and cut estimates on August 10. Analysts at Citizens and Stephens each lowered price targets to $11.00 and $9.50 respectively. The mean analyst target sits at $12.57 — implying significant upside from current levels at $7.30, but that gap reflects uncertainty as much as conviction.
Here is where it gets interesting. The put-call ratio collapsed to 0.81 on August 25. The 20-day mean is 1.09. That's nearly 3 standard deviations below average — the lowest PCR reading since July 17.
When short interest is rising sharply and borrowing costs are climbing, a simultaneous surge in call buying is unusual. Options traders appear to be positioning for a reversal — or at minimum, hedging against one.
The ORTEX short score sits at 62.9, elevated but not at extremes. Institutional holders including Wellington Management (added 389,000 shares) and Vanguard Capital Management (added nearly 1.1 million shares) recently increased positions.
The key tension: shorts are building into a stock where the CEO is buying daily and call buyers are stepping in aggressively. Availability is tightening. If that pool continues to compress and any positive catalyst emerges — guidance confirmation, credit stabilisation, or a partner bank update — the setup becomes more volatile. Next earnings are not until November 9.
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