Why this matters — Three distinct ORTEX data streams have simultaneously flagged Adobe Inc. on April 24. Short interest, cost to borrow, and options sentiment all moved in the same direction within a single session.
Short interest jumps 21% in one day. Shares short surged from ~12.25 million to 14.82 million on April 24 — a 20.9% single-day rise. That puts SI % of FF at 3.54%, up from roughly 2.93% the prior day. The move reverses a steady retreat that had been in place since late March, when shorts had unwound from the 14.3 million peak.
Cost to borrow doubles in a week. CTB hit 0.48% APR on April 24, up 86% over the prior week. That is the steepest weekly climb since early April. While the absolute level remains low, the pace of increase signals fresh short-selling demand that is tightening supply of borrowable shares.
Options put activity rises above trend. The put/call ratio reached 0.70 on April 24, sitting 2.2 standard deviations above its 20-day mean of 0.67. That is the most elevated PCR reading in the recent window, pointing to elevated protective or directional put buying relative to calls.
Mizuho downgraded ADBE to Neutral from Outperform on April 27, cutting the target to $270 from $315. That follows a string of cuts: UBS lowered its target to $260 on April 17, Citigroup trimmed to $278 in March, and Goldman Sachs maintained a Sell with a $220 target. William Blair also downgraded in late March. The analyst consensus mean target sits at $327.95 — well above current prices — but the direction of recent revisions is clearly downward. CFO Daniel Durn sold 1,336 shares on April 20, a modest transaction with low significance scoring. Insiders show a net value of ~$2.2M sold over the past 90 days.
A similar pattern appeared in mid-to-late March, when shares short peaked near 14.3 million before pulling back sharply through early April. That prior peak coincided with the post-earnings selloff following the March 12 report, which saw the stock fall ~8.9% in a single day. The current re-accumulation of short positions arrives ahead of the next earnings event on June 11.
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