CC heads into its November earnings with short interest climbing, options hedging near a year-high, and the stock down 11% over the past month to $13.89, a setup that reflects deep unease rather than simple sector rotation.
The clearest shift this week is in short positioning. Short interest has risen 24% over the past month, reaching 10.5% of the free float, with the sharpest leg higher coming around September 22 to 23, when shares outstanding on loan jumped by roughly 900,000 in a single session. The weekly gain of 5.6% keeps the build-up intact despite a fractional pullback on the final day. FINRA's most recent fortnightly data, covering the September 15 settlement date, puts days-to-cover at 8.66, an uncommonly high reading that means bears would need nearly nine trading sessions to unwind at average volumes. Borrow availability remains loose, however. With availability at roughly 1,681% relative to short interest, there are far more shares available to lend than are currently borrowed. Cost to borrow has nudged up 13% on the week to 0.53%, but that remains a very low rate. The lending market is not under stress, which means the short rebuild reflects fresh bearish conviction rather than a forced technical squeeze.
Options traders have moved in the same direction. The put/call ratio has jumped to 0.54, well above its 20-day average of 0.37 and near its 52-week high of 0.57. The change was abrupt: before September 21, the PCR had been running below 0.30 for most of the prior month. That break higher suggests a meaningful shift in how options market participants are positioned, with demand for downside protection rising sharply around the same time the short interest was being rebuilt. Both signals are pointing the same way.
The Street has spent the past two months cutting targets without abandoning positive ratings on most of the stock. Following August's earnings, JPMorgan cut its target from $22 to $15 while holding Neutral, and UBS downgraded from Buy to Neutral, trimming from $29 to $18. BMO and RBC both held Outperform but pulled their targets from the high-$20s to $18 and $22 respectively. The most recent action came this week: Mizuho maintained its Outperform but clipped its target from $20 to $18. The pattern is consistent across the past two months. Bulls on the Street are holding their ratings but accepting lower numbers. The consensus mean target of $18.56 still implies roughly 34% upside from current levels, a large gap that the market is plainly not willing to close yet. Factor scores reinforce the ambivalence: EPS 12-month forward momentum ranks in the 83rd percentile, suggesting analysts do see earnings recovery ahead, but the short-score rank in the 9th percentile flags CC as one of the more heavily shorted names in the broader universe. The bull case centres on pricing power in Chemours's Opteon refrigerant franchise and over $250 million in targeted cost savings through 2027. The bear case points to regulatory headwinds on HFCs, competitive pressure in HFO technology, and persistent end-market weakness in housing and automotive, the primary customers for titanium dioxide.
The most tangible insider signal came in early August, immediately after earnings sent the stock down roughly 15% in a single session. The CEO, CFO, a director, and several other officers all made open-market purchases between August 6 and August 12. The CFO bought 3,350 shares at $14.94 and the CEO bought 3,378 shares at $14.95. A director added 13,000 shares worth roughly $203,000. None of these purchases were made under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan. The 90-day net insider position is a buyer across the board, with net purchases of around 31,500 shares worth approximately $489,000. The stock has since drifted back toward those August buying levels, now trading at $13.89, below the price most insiders paid.
On the peer tape, the week's selling was sector-wide but CC underperformed. TROX, its closest correlate at 68% co-movement, fell 9.3% on the week. WLK dropped 7.9% and OLN lost 8.3%. CC itself fell 7.3%, in line with the group, but its sharper one-month loss of 11% and the resumption of short interest growth distinguish it from peers that have seen more contained positioning.
The previous two earnings releases both produced large negative reactions: the August 2026 print saw the stock fall more than 15% in a day and hold most of those losses over the following week. With the next event set for November 5, the convergence of rebuilding short interest, defensive options positioning, and targets clustering well above the current price means the central question heading into that print is whether the Street's recovery thesis on Chemours's cost-savings programme and refrigerant volumes holds up against a market that has spent September pricing in further disappointment.
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