Options traders have swung sharply behind Edwards Lifesciences. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.94 — the lowest reading in 52 weeks — sitting 2.3 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 1.08. That's a clean break from the elevated, defensive posture that dominated through early August, when the PCR was running above 1.10.
The shift didn't happen overnight. The PCR crossed below 1.00 around August 21 and has held there for six straight sessions. Call dominance is now the established positioning, not a one-day spike.
Analyst action is the clearest catalyst. Since late July, eight firms have raised their price targets on EW. UBS assumed coverage with a Buy at $110. Leerink upgraded to Outperform, lifting its target from $87 to $101. JP Morgan, Piper Sandler, Mizuho, RBC Capital, Citigroup, and Evercore ISI have all raised targets as well. The consensus sits at Buy, with a mean target of $100.96 against a current price of $90.78 — roughly 11% implied upside from yesterday's close.
That wall of constructive analyst opinion appears to be anchoring the options skew toward calls.
Short interest is low and not a meaningful factor. Bears have been covering steadily — SI sits around 1.6% of free float, down roughly 28% from the ~12.7 million shares short in early August. Borrow availability stands at 9,999% — an extraordinarily loose market with 571 million shares available to lend. The cost to borrow ticked up 51% week-on-week to 0.52%, but that move is from a very low base and reflects normal day-to-day fluctuation, not any tightening of the lending pool. There is no squeeze dynamic here.
BlackRock added 6.2 million shares in its most recent reported period, lifting its stake to 10.2% of the company. JP Morgan Asset Management added 1.34 million shares. AllianceBernstein added 5.2 million. Aristotle Capital Management initiated a new position of 8.67 million shares. The institutional flow runs in the same direction as the options positioning.
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