Why this matters: Yesterday's stock report noted a dramatic 40% collapse in Alphabet's short book on September 25. The latest data shows that unwind has partially reversed. Short interest is back above 87 million shares — and retail attention has simultaneously hit a 2.5-standard-deviation spike.
The September 28 stock report documented what looked like a decisive short-side capitulation. It was not. GOOGL short interest stands at 87.4 million shares as of September 28. That is 1.50% of the free float — up 11.8% over the past week.
To reconcile with the previous report: the September 25 reading cited there (52.6 million shares) appears to have been a single-session dislocation. The data series shows shares short at 87.4 million on September 25 in this snapshot, consistent with the broader rebuild pattern across the month. Whatever covering occurred around September 24–25, the short book has re-established at its prior level.
The one-month change tells the story more cleanly. SI is up 24.2% over 30 days. That is a sustained build, not noise.
Cost to borrow is moving the other way. The all-loan rate dropped 55% over the past week to 0.20% — near a three-month low. The borrow market remains extremely loose. Availability is effectively uncapped, with over 5 billion shares available to lend. There is no supply squeeze developing. Bears can add with minimal friction.
The alt data signal is the most distinctive element here. Wikipedia pageviews and ORTEX stock page traffic — combined into a single retail-attention composite — hit a z-score of 2.50 against GOOGL's own 90-day average as of September 28. That is the highest reading in the current data window. Retail attention and short positioning are rising together. Neither dataset has been shown to lead Alphabet's reported financials, so this is colour, not a directional signal — but the coincidence is notable.
Piper Sandler reiterated Overweight on September 28, raising its target from $395 to $400. That follows Evercore ISI (target raised to $450) and Tigress Financial (raised to $485) earlier in the month. The consensus mean target sits at $432 — 26% above the September 28 close of $342.75. Analysts are leaning constructive; short sellers are leaning the other way.
The ORTEX short score ticked up to 31.7 on September 28, from 30.5 a week ago. It is moving, but at 31.7 it sits in the lower third of its historical range — this is a low-conviction short by any standard measure.
What to watch: Whether short interest holds above 87 million into the October 20 print, and whether the retail attention spike translates into broader options activity — the put/call ratio of 0.65 currently sits near its one-year low.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open GOOGL on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
