Telephone and Data Systems heads into September with a notable disconnect: short sellers have rebuilt positions sharply over the past month, yet the stock's lending market remains wide open and an activist sits conspicuously on the register.
The short interest story is the week's standout tension. Shorts have climbed 18% in a single week and 23% over the past month, bringing the SI % of FF to 5.5%. Looking at the history, the jump was concentrated around August 24-25, when shares borrowed leapt from roughly 5.0 million to 5.95 million almost overnight. That's a material repositioning in a name that was running far lighter a month ago. Yet the borrow market doesn't reflect stress. Availability remains very comfortable at roughly 766% — meaning there are around seven shares available for every one already borrowed — and cost to borrow holds near 0.46%, essentially unchanged over the past month. The short score, at 49.5, sits precisely at the midpoint of the ORTEX universe, ranking in the bottom quintile on the short score rank factor. This is a picture of shorts building, but not of a crowded or difficult borrow situation.
Options positioning adds a degree of caution to the mix. The put/call ratio has moved to 0.71, above its 20-day average of 0.59, though the z-score of 0.62 falls well short of being alarming. What is notable is that the PCR has been tracking near the 52-week high of 0.76 for most of the past ten days — a sustained defensive lean rather than a single-day spike. The combination of rising short interest and a bid for puts suggests a portion of the market is hedging into TDS's next earnings event, scheduled for November 6.
The most newsworthy element on TDS right now is activist positioning. A Schedule 13D/A was filed today — September 2 — by the Carlson family voting trust, disclosing an 11.7% stake, down slightly from a prior 11.9%. A 13D classification signals activist intent, and the trust has now filed three times since August 2025. Third Point LLC holds a passive 5.7% stake via a 13G. Together, these two holders account for roughly 17.5% of shares, alongside BlackRock at 13.8%. The Carlson family ownership is a long-standing structural feature of TDS, but the freshness of today's 13D/A amendment keeps it squarely in focus. As always with 13D/G disclosures, stakes are as-last-reported and holders who drift below 5% may not file again.
Street positioning reflects cautious optimism that has softened in recent weeks. JP Morgan trimmed its target from $51 to $48 on August 19 while holding an Overweight rating; Citigroup cut from $50 to $47 on August 13, also maintaining Buy. The consensus mean target is $47.50 — around 41% above the current $33.62 close — though that gap has been narrowing as targets step down. The EPS surprise factor score ranks in the 99th percentile, the one standout in an otherwise muted factor profile. EPS momentum at 30 and 90 days sits in the bottom third, and the dividend score at 80 is the other bright spot, though the dividend history on file runs back to 2022 and no recent distribution has been recorded. Valuation is stretched optically — a PE near 203x and EV/EBITDA around 12.7x — though price-to-book below 1 reinforces the value argument the bulls are making. The bear case centres on fiber buildout execution risk and competitive pressure in wireline, while bulls point to the UScellular wireless segment as the primary growth engine.
Earnings in early August produced a 6.4% one-day decline, the most recent data point in a pattern of post-print weakness. The next report arrives November 6. Between now and then, the pace of short-interest accumulation — and whether the activist trust files again — will be the primary reads on how positioning evolves.
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