Forum Energy Technologies heads into its Q1 2026 earnings report with options traders flashing unusual bullishness — a sharp contrast to the bearish sentiment building in short interest.
The options signal is the most striking data point on this stock right now. The put/call ratio has collapsed to 0.07, more than 1.6 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.19. That is the lowest defensive posture of the past year, against a 52-week high PCR of 0.49. Options traders are positioned almost entirely for upside. The RSI sits at 64, consistent with recent momentum, and the stock has gained 10% over the past month to close at $62.87 — though it slipped 2.6% Thursday on the eve of the print.
Short interest tells a starkly different story. Bears have moved fast and hard into this event. Estimated short interest jumped 46% in a single week, reaching 4.4% of the free float. Over the past month, shorts have nearly doubled their position — a 76% increase. That is a decisive build, not background noise. The ORTEX short score ticked up to 38.2 from around 33 in mid-April, confirming the momentum shift in bearish positioning. Days to cover is lean at 0.6, so a covering event would be rapid. Borrow availability remains loose, with cost to borrow at just 0.54% — bears face no friction building or holding their position.
The bull case rests on valuation and momentum. At an EV/EBITDA of roughly 6.9x on consensus revenue of $840 million, FET screens cheaply against oil services peers. The stock is up 75% year-to-date. State Street and American Century both added to positions in Q1, and Vanguard increased its stake by 26,800 shares — suggesting larger funds are still adding on strength. The last quarterly print in February produced a sharp positive reaction: the stock rose 10.5% on the day and held most of those gains over the following week. Bears, by contrast, appear to be betting that the oil services cycle is turning or that the recent re-rating has outrun fundamentals. That tension — strong momentum and institutional buying versus a rapidly expanding short book — is the core debate going into the print. Analyst data is too stale to factor meaningfully into the current setup.
Peers traded mostly higher on the week: OIS gained 9.7% and BKR added 10%, while OII was the outlier, falling 6.4%. FET's 3.6% weekly gain lagged the group, which may partly explain the accelerating short build — relative underperformance in a rising sector can attract technical sellers. The Q1 print will test whether the company's revenue and margin trajectory justifies the substantial year-to-date re-rating, or whether the rapidly assembled short book has correctly anticipated a shortfall.
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