Oil States International enters the week in rough shape. The stock fell 14% on May 5 after a Q1 earnings print that showed net income collapsing to $1.1 million from $3.2 million a year ago — barely beating EPS estimates by a penny, but clearly missing on the revenue and profitability narrative the market wanted. The stock now trades at $9.63, down 15.5% over the past week and 14% over the past month, leaving it well below where insiders sold in February.
The Street's response was swift and directional. Susquehanna's Charles Minervino, the stock's most active analyst, maintained a Neutral rating but cut his price target to $11 from $13 — his action published this morning, May 6, making it the freshest read on the tape. That $11 target sits just 14% above the current price, which for a Neutral rating is a thin margin of comfort. Stifel maintains a Buy with a $15 target, suggesting the lone bull sees meaningful recovery potential — but with only one formal Buy and one Neutral in coverage, the consensus skews negative, a backdrop that offers little institutional support on a downday. The EV/EBITDA multiple has compressed sharply, dropping by more than one turn in both the past week and month to 6.0x, reflecting the earnings-driven de-rating.
Short interest tells a more muted story than the price action implies. At 3.4% of the free float, positioned short is real but far from aggressive. What's notable is the month-on-month arc: short shares climbed roughly 20% through April before fading back slightly as earnings arrived. The ORTEX short score of 33.2 is squarely in the lower-middle of the range — no squeeze pressure, but no exceptional crowding either. On the borrow side, availability is effectively unconstrained, with ample supply in the lending pool and a cost-to-borrow holding near just 0.60% annualised. That means new shorts face no friction entering the stock, but equally, there's nothing in the borrow market signalling conviction from bears.
Options positioning adds a subtle layer of caution. The put/call ratio moved up to 0.061 this week, the highest reading in roughly three weeks, and around one standard deviation above its 20-day average. That's a modest defensive tilt — not the kind of extreme skew that characterises a panic or a pre-planned hedge, but enough to confirm that some participants had downside protection in place ahead of the print. The 52-week PCR high of 0.17 puts the current reading in context: OIS options flow still skews heavily call-dominated relative to the broader market; the recent uptick is directional, not extreme.
Insider activity from earlier in the year adds an awkward footnote. In February, CEO Cindy B. Taylor sold more than 76,000 shares across two transactions, with the CFO and COO also trimming positions on the same dates. The combined C-suite selling came at prices between $9.43 and $12.53 — straddling the current level. Those trades followed routine award grants, so the context matters. However, an independent director sold a further 42,500 shares at $11.61 in late March. Net insider activity over 90 days runs modestly positive in share count terms due to the awards, but the open-market sell side from top executives at prices near or above current levels is a detail worth noting in a week when the stock is printing near its lows. On the institutional side, BlackRock and Vanguard are the two largest holders, between them holding nearly 19% of shares outstanding. American Century and State Street both added meaningfully heading into Q1 end, which provides some passive and active support in the register — though that data predates the earnings selloff.
Earnings history carries one useful data point: the prior quarterly print on April 28 saw the stock rise 5.2% the next session before reversing to close that five-day window down 14% — precisely the kind of "buy the print, sell the rip" dynamic that has now played out again following the Q1 2026 results. Q2 results are tentatively expected around July 29, per S&P Global's estimate. Between now and then, the focus is on whether macro oil-services demand — and oil prices themselves — can stabilise enough to rebuild confidence in OIS's revenue trajectory after two consecutive quarters of year-on-year profit decline.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open OIS 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.
