Monolithic Power Systems heads into its Q1 2026 earnings report with bears in visible retreat — and the stock trading near levels where the options market has rarely been less defensive.
The most striking shift is in short positioning. Short interest has dropped nearly 20% in a single week to 3.77% of the free float — a meaningful unwind that tracks almost precisely with MPWR's 61% price surge over the past month and a 5.7% gain on April 30 alone. That rush to cover tells its own story: shorts who built positions at lower prices have been squeezed out as the stock ran to $1,614. The borrow market offers no particular tension — cost to borrow is negligible at 0.44%, and availability remains ample, with the lending pool far from stressed. The ORTEX short score has also retreated from 41 earlier in April to 37.9, moving away from any meaningful squeeze signal.
Options positioning has swung sharply in the opposite direction from where it was two months ago. The put/call ratio has fallen to 1.07, nearly a full standard deviation below its 20-day average of 1.15 — and far below the readings above 1.30 that dominated through March. That shift points to fading demand for downside protection, consistent with a market that has been buying the stock, not hedging against it. The 52-week range on PCR runs from 0.98 to 1.82, and the current reading is near the lower end — options traders are not bracing for a stumble.
The analyst community is broadly constructive, though the mean price target of $1,447 now sits below where the stock is trading. Stifel lifted its target to $1,500 in mid-April — the most recent move — but even that now lags the current price. The bull case centres on MPWR's execution record in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, its enterprise data exposure, and its proprietary BCD process technology. Bears point to a crowded and competitive analog sector, macro sensitivity, and a pending CFO transition that introduces some near-term uncertainty. The stock's P/E multiple has expanded roughly 27% over the past 30 days to 66x, and EV/EBITDA is running at 54.6x — premium valuations that leave limited room for guidance disappointment. Close peers ADI and ON gained 3.3% and 2.0% on the day respectively, while ALGM jumped over 10% — suggesting the broader analog space caught a bid, but MPWR's move was part of a sector-wide re-rating rather than an idiosyncratic story.
The print will test whether the operational strength that drove a 4.3% one-day gain after the February 2026 report can justify a valuation that has now run well past where most analysts set their targets.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open MPWR on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
