SAN reports Q1 results on April 29 with positioning notably lighter than it was two weeks ago. Short interest fell 6.3% over the past week to 73.9 million shares. Borrow cost has collapsed alongside, down 30% in seven days to 1.33%. Utilisation dropped sharply to 62%, well off the 52-week high of 76% hit earlier this month. The stock itself gave up 7.1% over the week, now trading at $11.96 after a one-month rally of nearly 10%.
Options sentiment has swung bullish heading into the event. The put/call ratio sits at 0.27, more than a standard deviation below its 20-day average and near the year's low. That shift reflects reduced hedging demand and marks a sharp contrast to the defensive posture that dominated through March. The price action since the last earnings call has been choppy — the stock dipped 7.5% in the five days following the February report, though it climbed 7% after the March event. Over the trailing 90 days insiders have been net sellers, most recently a March disposal worth $137,000.
Wall Street activity has been muted. The most recent analyst action on file is a Citigroup reinstatement to Buy in June 2025, but the broader consensus data dates to late 2020 and cannot be treated as current. Recent valuation multiples show a P/E of 10.1 and a price-to-book of 1.36, both modestly higher than a month ago on the stock's run. Factor scores place the bank in the 83rd percentile for EPS surprise and the 78th for sector performance, while the dividend score lags at the 17th percentile. The ORTEX short score remains elevated at 52.8, indicating continued attention from the short side despite the recent unwind.
Major holders remain steady. BlackRock leads with 7.1% of shares, Vanguard holds 4.6%, and Dodge & Cox sits at 3.1%. Goldman Sachs added 144 million shares in Q4, lifting its stake to 1.6%. The Q1 print will test whether the bank can sustain margin momentum in a European environment where interest-rate tailwinds have begun to fade and whether management can articulate a path to lift the dividend yield, which the market currently scores as weak relative to diversified-bank peers.
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