Wheaton Precious Metals Shorts Hit a New High as Shares Slide 11%

Short sellers have rebuilt their position in WPM to the highest level in at least a year, with shares short climbing to 3.26 million, up 28% over the past month and nearly 4% on the week alone.

The short position now represents 0.72% of the free float, a low absolute level but one that has been rising steadily since early October. The lending market offers no signal of squeeze pressure. Availability is running at roughly 1,980% of short interest, meaning shares to borrow dwarf the current short position by a factor of nearly 20. Cost to borrow is 0.71%, up 12% on the week but still negligible in absolute terms. Borrowing WPM remains cheap and easy, which means any recent short-selling activity reflects a directional view on the stock rather than a technically forced position.

The price action has been the more dramatic story. WPM fell 10.8% on the week to CAD 169.18, its worst seven-day stretch in recent months and a decline of 22% over the past month. That selloff is broadly in line with the gold and streaming peer group: FNV dropped 7% on the week, ABX fell 7.6%, and IMG lost 11.1%. ARIS and FVI fared worse, falling 12.3% and 15.2% respectively. WPM's decline is steep but not an outlier in a sector that has given back a large portion of its earlier 2026 gains in a compressed period.

Valuation multiples have compressed alongside the share price. The P/E ratio has fallen roughly 4.2 points over 30 days to 25.4x. EV/EBITDA has dropped 1.1 points to 16.7x. Those moves mechanically track the price decline rather than any change in earnings estimates, and the EPS momentum factor scores, ranked in the 25th percentile on both 30-day and 90-day horizons, suggest forward estimates have been drifting lower. The ORTEX short score is 29, sitting in the 66th percentile for short positioning relative to sector peers, a moderate rather than extreme bearish signal.

Institutional ownership provides some context on who is holding through the pullback. BlackRock reported a position of 48.2 million shares as of September 30, equal to 10.6% of shares outstanding, and added nearly 19.7 million shares in the most recent reported period. Capital Research held 44.7 million shares, or 9.8% of the company. The most recent insider activity was a series of small open-market sales by one officer between August and September, totalling roughly CAD-equivalent $1.2 million net sold over 90 days. The trade significance scores on those transactions were low, and no director-level buying has been reported.

WPM's next earnings release is scheduled for November 5. The past four earnings events produced next-day moves of between 2% and 8.6% to the upside, with five-day returns ranging from slightly negative to nearly 7% positive. The November print will arrive with short interest at its highest recent point and the stock down more than a fifth from its highs.