Hormel Foods: Short Interest Drops 10.6% as Stock Rebounds

Hormel Foods Corporation saw short interest fall sharply over the past week, declining 10.6% to 23.4 million shares as of April 21st. Short interest now stands at 4.25% of float, down from elevated levels seen earlier this month.

The pullback in bearish bets coincides with improving price action. HRL gained 3.7% over the past week and closed at $21.43 on April 22nd, up 0.85% on the day. The stock remains down 3.2% over the past month and has declined 10.3% year-to-date.

Short Metrics Show Relief

Short interest peaked at 26.2 million shares on April 13th before retreating. Days to cover remains modest at 5.0 days. Cost to borrow sits at a negligible 0.41%, down 5.8% week-over-week, reflecting ample availability for short sellers. Utilization stands at just 13.6%, well below the 52-week high of 26.3% reached on April 13th.

The ORTEX Short Score registered 44.8, indicating moderate bearish pressure. Options activity shows a put/call ratio of 0.40, below the 20-day average of 0.43, suggesting recent bullish positioning.

Business Snapshot

The packaged foods company trades at $11.7 billion market cap. Fundamentals show $12.3 billion in annual revenue with $1.36 billion in EBITDA. The enterprise value sits at $16.1 billion with net debt of $2.05 billion.

HRL offers an attractive 5.5% forward dividend yield. Analysts see 25.9% upside potential to their consensus price target. The stock carries an ORTEX Stock Score of 68.2, reflecting a balanced profile.

The company reports Q1 2026 earnings on May 28th. Technical indicators show an RSI of 40.1, suggesting the stock is approaching oversold territory but has not yet reached extreme levels.

This is not financial advice. Data is subject to change and may contain errors.