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Options traders are positioning bullishly on First Horizon Corporation with earnings 13 days away, even as short interest ticks higher and retail attention stays elevated.
The put-call ratio has dropped to 0.0776, sitting 2.4 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 0.0793. That is the most call-heavy the options book has been relative to recent norms, a notable skew for a regional bank heading into an October 14 earnings print. The 52-week range puts this reading in context: the PCR has reached as high as 0.666 over the past year, so the current positioning is strikingly one-sided toward calls.
Wells Fargo's Terry McEvoy trimmed his price target to $25 from $28 on September 30, maintaining an Equal-Weight rating. The stock trades at $23.02, leaving about 8.6% to that reduced target. Citigroup's Benjamin Gerlinger also nudged his Buy-rated target to $28 from $28.50 earlier in the week. Morgan Stanley initiated at Equal-Weight with a $30 target on September 8. The analyst cluster suggests fair value in the mid-to-high $20s, above the current price, which may partly explain the call-side appetite.
Short interest has climbed 13.2% over the past week to 2.53% of free float. As noted in the prior ORTEX note published September 30, that build looks more like a tactical re-entry ahead of the Q3 print than a sustained directional conviction. The borrow market remains very loose: availability stands at 5,505% of current short interest, with a cost to borrow of just 0.36%.
Retail attention remains elevated. The ORTEX Wikipedia and stock-page view composite sits 4.5 standard deviations above its 90-day average as of September 27, an unusual level of interest for a mid-sized regional bank.
On the institutional side, Millennium Management filed a fresh Schedule 13G on September 9 disclosing a 4.97% stake of 23.5 million shares, as last disclosed. Separately, BlackRock added 1.5 million shares in the most recent reported period, bringing its holding to 12.4% of shares outstanding.
FDIC call report data shows First Horizon posted its largest Q2 total assets on record (since 2024) at $84.1 billion, with total assets rising for five consecutive quarters. That dataset has not yet been tested as a leading indicator for the company's reported figures.
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