Stories are generated from ORTEX data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. How we publish
Jackson Financial heads into its November 3 earnings report with analysts nudging targets higher, borrow conditions extremely loose, and the stock nursing a 5% monthly pullback from a position that still looks fundamentally cheap.
The analyst picture this week is straightforwardly constructive. Both Barclays and Evercore ISI raised their price targets on October 7, with Barclays keeping its Overweight rating and moving to $150, while Evercore lifted its In-Line target a single dollar to $136. The moves follow a pattern established since August, when multiple firms raised targets after the last earnings print. The mean consensus target of $149 sits about 12% above the current price of $132.91, a gap that has opened up partly because the stock has drifted 5.5% lower over the past month. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods sits in the middle with a Market Perform and a $140 target. In short, the Street sees value but is divided on conviction: one firm at Overweight, one neutral, one effectively flat. No bear case has been articulated through formal rating changes in recent months.
The lending market tells a story of minimal short-seller pressure. Availability is extraordinarily wide at over 4,300% of short interest, meaning there are roughly 43 shares in the borrow pool for every one currently lent out. That is well above the 52-week trough of around 1,255% reached in mid-September, when SI briefly ran higher. Borrowing costs remain near negligible at 0.41%, and short interest of 5.2% of the free float has eased about 3% on the week. The short score of 43 is unremarkable, placing JXN in roughly the bottom third of the short-squeeze risk universe. None of this signals a story driven by short-side pressure.
Options positioning has softened toward neutral after an elevated spell. The put/call ratio of 2.59 is below its 20-day average of 3.08 and well off the 52-week high of 4.68 reached in mid-September, when availability also tightened and short interest was at a recent peak. The z-score of minus 0.53 shows options demand for downside protection has normalised from that defensive extreme. September's combination of elevated puts, tighter borrow and higher SI looks in hindsight like a cluster of hedging activity that has since unwound. Positioning now looks more balanced than it has in several weeks.
The factor picture is interesting in its contradictions. Jackson Financial's EPS surprise rank of 90 and 90-day EPS momentum rank of 94 confirm the company has been outpacing estimates consistently. The earnings history supports this: the August 4 print produced a one-day move of plus 6.6% and a five-day follow-through of plus 2.4%. On valuation, the stock trades at a trailing price-to-earnings of around 4.4 and a price-to-book below 0.76, which scores in the 6th percentile on EV-to-EBIT, meaning it looks cheap on asset-based metrics against the broader universe. The dividend score rank of 76 is supportive for income-oriented holders, though the dividend history in the data runs only to 2022, so recent payout details are not available here.
BlackRock stands out in the holder register, reporting a position of 6.8 million shares, or about 10% of the company, as of September 30, with a notable addition of nearly 2 million shares in the latest period. TPG Capital holds roughly 7% and has been static. Vanguard entities collectively account for another 13% or so across separate funds. There are no Schedule 13D activist filers on the register. All 13D/G stakes are as last disclosed around the 5% threshold and holders dropping below that level may exit without a further filing. The recent insider transactions from September 24 were all coded as grant awards rather than open-market purchases, so they carry limited signalling value on their own.
FDIC call report data through June 2026 shows total assets in the bank charter have risen for eight consecutive quarters and total deposits for seven, but this dataset has not yet been tested against Jackson Financial's reported figures, so it is background context rather than a forward indicator. The next print is November 3, 27 days away, with peers EQH and CRBG both up around 4% on the week, outpacing JXN's 1.2% weekly gain and leaving the relative-performance gap as one thing worth watching before that date arrives.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open JXN on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
