Cameco Trails Peers as Short Interest Climbs to a Year High

The uranium sector moved sharply higher this week, and CCO was part of the rally. But among its closest peers, Cameco was the quieter name.

NXE gained 3.7% over the past week and DML added 5.3%. ISO and URE both climbed more than 9%. The median weekly move across Cameco's eight closest peers landed around 3.4%. Cameco's own gain of 2.3% placed it at the softer end of that range, even as Tuesday's 4.4% single-day jump suggested the stock was catching up rather than leading.

Short interest is the metric that separates Cameco from most of its peer group right now. At 1.08% of the free float, the absolute level is modest. But the trajectory is not: positions have grown roughly 24% over the past month, bringing the short book to its highest point in at least a year. The past week alone saw a 5.8% rise in shares short before a small pullback on Tuesday. For a large-cap uranium producer with a C$36 billion market cap, that pace of accumulation is worth noting even if the headline percentage looks benign against more speculative names in the sector.

The borrow market tells a relaxed story. Availability is effectively unconstrained at nearly 4,900%, meaning lenders have far more shares available than shorts have borrowed. Cost to borrow has drifted lower over the past month to around 0.47% annualised, near its cheapest level in recent weeks despite the brief spike to 1.75% on October 13. The lending market is not putting any pressure on existing short positions, and opening new ones carries almost no borrow friction.

Institutional ownership is broadly stable. Vanguard and Capital Research both added small positions in the quarter to September, while Van Eck and RBC Global Asset Management also increased holdings. FMR LLC, which had held above 5% and filed a 13G, has since reduced its stake to 3.4% as of its May 2025 amendment, though as with all 13D/G disclosures, that figure reflects the position at the time of filing. BlackRock crossed above 5% in its July 2026 filing, disclosing a 5.02% passive stake, up from 4.3% previously.

Valuation multiples have eased over the past month. The price-to-earnings ratio has fallen roughly 6 points over 30 days to near 47x, and the price-to-book ratio has compressed by around 0.4 turns. EV/EBITDA is close to flat over the same period. The ORTEX short score has held in a narrow band around 28.6 to 28.9 throughout October, indicating no material shift in the overall short conviction profile despite the rise in positions. The 12-month forward earnings growth factor ranks in the 88th percentile, which gives bulls a genuine anchor, while the EV/EBIT factor score of 2 out of 100 reflects just how rich the stock still looks on an absolute valuation basis.

Cameco reports quarterly results on October 30. The previous print in July produced a 6% one-day gain and a nearly 10% five-day move. The print before that, in May, saw the stock fall 5.2% on the day and 8.6% over the following week. The short book has been building through October, and availability remains so loose that any repositioning around the result faces no mechanical constraint from the lending market. Whether the short build represents genuine conviction or simple pre-earnings hedging is what the next few sessions will clarify.