Robinhood Founders Sell, Short Interest Climbs Pre-Earnings

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) heads into Monday's earnings with rising short pressure and sustained insider selling. Short interest hit 4.59% of float, the highest in a month. Founders continue trimming stakes while analysts slash targets by double digits.

Price action & positioning

HOOD closed at $84.71 on April 24, up 1.4% on the day. The stock fell 6.7% over the week but remains up 22.6% month-over-month. The weekly decline erased some of April's gains as the company approaches its April 28 earnings call.

Short interest & lending

Short interest reached 36.1 million shares as of April 23, representing 4.59% of the float. That marks an 8.3% increase over the past week and a 19.4% climb over the month. The current level is the highest since late March. Short shares stood at 30.1 million on March 13 and have climbed steadily since.

Cost to borrow sits at 0.37%, up 8% week-over-week and 9.3% over the month. CTB has bounced between 0.29% and 0.54% over the past 30 days. The current level sits in the middle of that range.

Utilisation jumped to 4.45% from 0.76% a month ago. The metric has more than quintupled in 30 days. The 52-week high of 9.71% was set earlier in the year. Utilisation hit a recent low of 0.73% on March 17 before the sharp climb began.

Options flow

The put/call ratio registered 0.6493 on April 24, slightly below the 20-day mean of 0.6572. The z-score of -0.61 indicates modestly elevated call activity relative to recent patterns. The 52-week range spans 0.5064 to 0.7355. Current PCR sits in the lower half of the annual range. The ratio has trended below its 20-day average for three consecutive sessions.

Analyst consensus

The mean price target stands at $101.15, implying upside from the current price. Recent analyst action tilts negative. JP Morgan's Kenneth Worthington cut his target to $92 from $113 on April 23 while maintaining Neutral. Keybanc's Alex Markgraff lowered to $110 from $120 on April 21, keeping Overweight. Truist's David Smith dropped to $100 from $120 on April 13.

On the bullish side, Cantor Fitzgerald's Ramsey El-Assal raised to $110 from $95 on April 21. Mizuho's Dan Dolev lifted to $115 from $105 on April 20. Bernstein's Gautam Chhugani maintained his $130 target on April 14. The recent changes show a clear split between bulls raising and bears cutting.

According to Benzinga's bull case, Robinhood benefits from 10% quarter-over-quarter growth in equities and options volumes plus a favorable crypto-regulatory outlook. The bear case highlights slowed platform growth and downward revisions to FY'26 revenue estimates to $5.3 billion and Adjusted EBITDA to $3.1 billion.

Valuation & factor positioning

The P/E ratio sits at 33.44, down from 36.40 a month ago as the multiple compressed 5.27 points. The P/B ratio stands at 6.99, up 1.02 points over 30 days. Enterprise value registered $3.05 billion as of April 24.

HOOD scores in the 83rd percentile for sector score, indicating strong relative performance versus investment banking and brokerage peers. The stock ranks at the 46th percentile on short score. EPS surprise sits at the 55th percentile. EPS momentum ranks at the 12th percentile over 30 days and 14th over 90 days. The dividend score of 61st percentile reflects HOOD's non-dividend-paying status.

Institutional positioning

Co-founder Vladimir Tenev holds 55.5 million shares, or 6.16% of outstanding. He sold 750,000 shares as of his April 6 filing. Co-founder Baiju Bhatt owns 55.2 million shares, representing 6.13%. Bhatt trimmed 188,486 shares in his April 16 filing.

Among passive managers, Vanguard added 1.3 million shares to reach 95.8 million as of March 31. BlackRock grew its position by 4.5 million shares to 64.0 million. State Street increased by 875,297 shares to 33.1 million. JP Morgan Asset Management boosted by 1.7 million shares to 25.1 million.

Insider activity

Insiders sold a net 533,429 shares over the past 90 days, valued at $38.5 million. Co-founder Bhatt sold 57,261 shares on April 16 across multiple transactions at prices ranging from $84.59 to $88.36, totaling $3.95 million. CFO Shiv Verma sold 5,436 shares on April 15 between $83.43 and $87.36, totaling $466,716. All recent transactions were sells. No insider purchases appear in the 90-day window.

What to watch

HOOD reports earnings on Monday, April 28 at 8:00 PM UTC. The print will provide clarity on trading volumes, crypto activity, and margin trends. Analysts will focus on guidance given the recent estimate cuts. The last announced earnings event was February 10, 2026.