ABM Short Interest Drops 22%

ABM Industries saw short interest decline sharply in March. Shares short fell to 1.75 million, down 22% from February levels. Short interest now represents 2.86% of free float.

Days to cover dropped to 2.15 from 4.97 a month earlier. This suggests reduced bearish positioning as the stock rallied. Shares gained 7.7% over the past month.

Cost to borrow remains modest at 0.48%. This reflects ample share availability for shorting. Utilization sits at just 2.54%, well below the 52-week high of 7.31%.

The options market shows neutral sentiment. Put-call ratio stands at 0.71, slightly below the 20-day average of 0.74. Options activity suggests balanced positioning between bulls and bears.

ABM's ORTEX short score sits at 34.0, indicating moderate short interest relative to peers. The stock trades at $40.26 with a market cap of $2.36 billion. Analysts see 27.7% upside to their consensus target price.

The company generates $9.2 billion in annual revenue from environmental and facilities services. EBITDA reached $555 million with an enterprise value multiple of 7.5x. Next earnings are scheduled for June 5.

The stock's ORTEX total score is 64.4, reflecting balanced fundamentals. RSI stands at 54.95, suggesting neither overbought nor oversold conditions. The yield is 2.91%.

Short covering likely contributed to recent price gains. With bearish bets declining and utilization low, short-side pressure has eased considerably for this facilities management provider.