SEI heads into its April 28 earnings print carrying more defensive options positioning than usual — even as short sellers show little urgency to press the bet.
The clearest signal heading into the release is in the options market. The put/call ratio jumped to 1.09 on April 27, more than three standard deviations above its 20-day mean of 0.49 — a sharp shift toward downside protection that stands out against a backdrop where the ratio had been running well below 0.30 for most of the prior week. That move is notable given the stock's strong recent run: SEI has gained 22% over the past month and 8.7% over the past week to close at $70.63, though it slipped 2.5% on Monday.
Short interest tells a less panicked story. At 25.4% of the free float, the short position is large by any standard — but it has been drifting lower, down about 4% over the past month and nearly flat on the week. Utilization has also eased, now running at 33% after touching 39% in mid-April, and well below the 52-week high of 62%. Borrowing costs remain near rock-bottom at 0.57% annualised, meaning the lending market is putting no meaningful squeeze pressure on existing shorts. The ORTEX short score of 66 reflects a moderately elevated but stable short thesis, not an accelerating one.
The bull-bear debate centres on which of SEI's two business lines is driving the story. Bears point to the Logistics Solutions segment, where EBITDA per deployed system has deteriorated — down roughly 14% year-over-year — and where the forward guidance pointed to a 10–15% sequential decline in fully utilised systems. That organic drag reflects weaker pressure pumping activity and a soft oil price environment. Bulls counter with the Power Solutions segment, which delivered $75.7 million in revenue last quarter, beating projections by 36% and growing 53% sequentially — a growth engine that the company expects to scale to over 600 MW of operational capacity. The analyst community leans constructive: the consensus is a buy, with a mean price target of $77.44. Piper Sandler lifted its target from $65 to $72 on April 15, and Barclays raised from $63 to $74 in mid-March, keeping Overweight on both occasions. Wells Fargo's recent initiation at Equal-Weight with a $71 target represents the more cautious end of a broadly supportive Street.
Peers have largely rallied with SEI this week — LBRT rose 24%, PUMP gained 22%, and ACDC was up 24% — suggesting the sector tailwind is real, even if today's options hedging implies investors want confirmation before committing further. The print is ultimately a test of whether Power Solutions momentum is durable enough to offset the structural softness in Logistics, and whether the margin trajectory justifies a stock that has nearly doubled from its 52-week lows.
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