Associated Banc-Corp reports April 28 with short interest climbing and analysts split on the regional lender's trajectory. Momentum has stalled into the print — shares down 2.8% over the past week despite a solid one-month gain.
Short interest stands at 3.86% of float as of April 23. That's up 0.5% over the past week and 8.8% over the month. Days to cover sits at 2.79 based on FINRA's mid-April settlement. Cost to borrow is minimal at 0.51%, though it jumped 26.5% in the past week. Utilisation remains negligible at 1.73%, well below the 52-week high of 5.5%. The setup suggests limited conviction from shorts — positions are growing but borrowing remains cheap and available.
The put/call ratio sits at 0.22 as of April 24. That's below the 20-day mean of 0.24 and registers a z-score of –1.04. Call activity dominates. The PCR is comfortably above its 52-week low of 0.13 but far from the high of 0.44. Sentiment leans bullish but not extreme.
Consensus data is unavailable, but the average price target of $30.50 sits 11.5% above the current $27.35 close. Recent activity has been mixed. Keefe Bruyette raised its target to $31 on April 24 while maintaining Market Perform. Piper Sandler and Baird also lifted targets to $30 the same day, both staying Neutral. Barclays upgraded to Overweight with a $33 target on April 7. Truist went the other way — it cut to $27 on March 23 and holds a Hold rating. Benzinga's bull case notes net interest income rose 1.6% sequentially to $310 million, margin expanded to 3.06%, and the pending American National acquisition signals growth ambitions. The bear case flags fee income down 2.3%, core expenses up 1.5%, and rising asset quality risks if the economy wobbles.
ASB trades at a P/E of 9.45, up 0.85 points over the past month. Price-to-book sits at 0.94, up 0.11 over 30 days. The stock ranks in the 71st percentile on 30-day EPS momentum and the 80th on earnings surprise. It scores a 99th percentile on analyst recommendation differential and 98th on dividend score. Overall quality and value ML scores are unavailable.
Insiders sold $7.9 million net over the past 90 days on 311,000 shares. Recent March trades show executives and officers disposing of equity-based awards. BlackRock holds 11.3% and added 537,000 shares as of March 31. Vanguard owns 9.8% and increased by 545,000. The John F. Kotouc Special Holding Trust disclosed a new 4.4% stake on April 1.
The bank has reported four times recently, with events clustered around late April. The stock is up 9.6% over the past month heading into this print.
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