Why this matters — Three distinct ORTEX data points have converged on DHR over the past week. Short interest, cost to borrow, and options positioning all shifted simultaneously as the life sciences tools company headed into a rocky earnings report.
Short sellers added 8.1% to their positions over the past week. Shares shorted climbed to 7.41 million by April 23, bringing short interest to 1.05% of float. The increase followed a volatile month that saw short interest jump 18.6% overall after a sharp spike on April 9.
Cost to borrow spiked 61% week-over-week to 0.64% before retreating to 0.45%. The borrowing rate has whipsawed between 0.18% and 0.67% over the past month. Utilization jumped from 0.12% to 0.19% on April 23, the highest level in three weeks.
Options traders turned more bearish. The put-call ratio climbed to 0.99 on April 24, a 2.3 standard deviation move above its 20-day mean of 0.76. The ratio had hovered near 0.70 for most of March before rising sharply in mid-April.
Nine analyst firms lowered price targets over the past two weeks. Morgan Stanley cut to $255 from $270 on April 23. Goldman Sachs dropped to $230 from $265. Wells Fargo reduced its target to $212 from $240. All maintained buy-equivalent ratings despite the cuts.
Insiders sold $3.99 million over the past 90 days with net selling of 18,266 shares. Most transactions were routine equity compensation sales by senior executives on February 24 and 27.
The company ranks in the 88th percentile on ORTEX short score. Momentum and EPS momentum scores sit at the 60th and 52nd percentiles respectively.
This is not financial advice. ORTEX data may contain errors.
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