BBVA Earnings Looming as Short Sellers Retreat and Call Buyers Take Over

BBVA reports third-quarter results on October 29 with a positioning story that runs against the cautious pre-earnings grain: short sellers have been cutting exposure sharply, and options traders are leaning heavily toward calls rather than puts.

Short interest fell 22% over the past week to roughly 2.21 million shares, unwinding a 44% build that had accumulated over the prior month. The retreat has been rapid: positions peaked around October 12 before sellers covered aggressively through the middle of last week. The borrow market reinforces the picture. Availability has climbed to over 1,200%, more than twelve shares available to borrow for every one currently lent out, and cost to borrow has collapsed to 0.42%, down from a brief spike to 16.2% on October 14 that appears to have been a single-day dislocation. The ORTEX short score has drifted down to 29.9 from 41 two weeks ago, moving away from elevated territory as positions closed.

Options positioning is the sharpest signal in the data. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.12, well below its 20-day average of 0.30 and near the 52-week low of 0.059. That means call volume is running at roughly eight times put volume, an unusually skewed reading that reflects active demand for upside exposure rather than defensive hedging. The stock has lost 13% over the past month and 3.3% over the past week, closing at $24.88 on Friday, so the call-side tilt is notable against a backdrop of price weakness.

The most recent analyst action of note was UBS's downgrade to Neutral in April 2026, following an earlier upgrade to Overweight by Barclays in August 2025. The consensus on the NYSE-listed ADR is thin, only two analyst ratings are tracked in the dataset, so the street view is not a primary input here. Valuation offers more texture: BBVA trades on a price-to-earnings of 9.3x and a price-to-book of 1.88x, both compressing over the past month as the share price fell. On a 30-day basis, the P/E has dropped by roughly 2.4 points, a meaningful re-rating for a bank stock in a short window. BlackRock holds 7.6% of shares, making it the largest institutional owner ahead of the print, with Capital Research and Management at 5.3%.

After its July 2026 results, BBVA shares gained 8.9% on the day and 9.7% over the following five sessions, a strong reaction that sets a high bar for the October print to match. The October 29 report will test whether the bank's earnings trajectory can justify the call-heavy positioning that has built even as the ADR price has retreated over the past month.