Deutsche Börse AG heads into today's Q1 2026 results having attracted its most aggressive short positioning in months — against a backdrop of a stock running near overbought territory.
Bears have been building quietly but persistently. Short interest as a percentage of the free float has nearly doubled since early March, climbing from around 1.3% to 2.0% — the sharpest and most sustained build-up in the 30-day window. Utilization has tracked the same arc, hitting 12.05% late last week, which marks its highest reading of the past year. Borrow costs remain subdued at 0.78% — not distressed, but up around 15% over the past month — suggesting the increase in shorts is coming from conviction rather than any forced unwind. The RSI-14 is running at 75.3, deep in overbought territory, offering short sellers a technical backdrop for their argument.
That rising short interest sits in tension with the stock's broader momentum story. DB1 is up over 11% in the past month and nearly 19% year-to-date, comfortably outperforming most of its peers: LSEG gained about 5.7% on the week, while , , and all drifted lower. The analyst consensus points to modest further upside — a mean price target of €282 against Monday's close of €266 implies roughly 6% — and the forward EPS trajectory ranks in the 82nd percentile of the universe for year-on-year improvement. Bulls are anchored to that earnings growth story; bears are challenging whether a PE of 21.6x and a price-to-book of 3.7x fully capture the execution risk.
Recent earnings history offers mixed comfort. The February print delivered the sharpest reaction — shares jumped 7.3% on the day and extended to 6.4% over the week. The March earnings event was far more muted, with the 1-day move less than 0.1%. The most recent comparable in mid-March saw a 2.7% gain on day one before fading to under 1% by day five. The pattern is not consistent, which means the stock does not carry a clear directional reflex into these events.
Today's print will test whether the acceleration in short selling over the past three weeks reflects genuine concern about the pace of revenue and trading-volume growth — or whether it is simply a tactical hedge against a stock that has run unusually hard into a number.
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