Short sellers are walking away from BA. The lending data tells that story clearly.
Short interest dropped 12.5% in a single day on September 24, falling to 1.88% of free float — the lowest level in weeks. Over the past week, SI is down more than 10%. That's a meaningful and accelerating retreat.
Cost to borrow collapsed to 0.23% — down 51% in a week. A month ago it sat near 0.46%. That's not a squeeze; that's an orderly exit.
Availability now stands at 6,777% of short shares outstanding, up 37% week-on-week. Put simply: the lending pool is flush. For every share currently borrowed by short sellers, there are roughly 68 shares still available. That's not a tight borrow market by any measure.
The short score sits at 32.5 — and has been drifting gently lower all week. No alarm there.
The put/call ratio stands at 0.851, below the 20-day mean of 0.886. The z-score is -1.55, meaning call activity is running above the recent norm. It's not extreme, but the direction matches the broader short-side retreat.
The PCR has been falling steadily since early September, when it touched 0.92. Options positioning and lending data are pointing the same way.
Here's the tension: shorts are leaving and the borrow market is loose, yet BA sits at $196.80 — down 1.6% on the day and off 6.5% over the past month. As flagged in the September 23 note, the gap between where the stock trades and where analysts think it belongs remains wide. The Street's consensus target is $273.50. That implies roughly 39% upside.
EPS momentum factor scores are at the 97th percentile over both 30 and 90 days. Earnings surprise ranks at the 93rd percentile. The fundamental data is constructive. The stock is not responding to it.
The October 21 earnings call is the next hard event. That's where the thesis gets tested.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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