Gulfport Energy just handed markets a new narrative — fresh Q1 earnings, a brand-new CEO, and options traders flipping sharply bullish all in the same week.
The headline story is the leadership change. Gulfport appointed Domenic J. Dell'Osso Jr. as Chief Executive Officer on May 6. Dell'Osso joins from Expand Energy, where he previously served as CEO before his departure. The move directly addresses one of the bear case's core concerns — the leadership vacuum that had introduced strategic uncertainty since the prior CEO's exit. KeyBanc reiterated its rating on the back of the announcement, and Mizuho promptly raised its price target to $251 from $248, keeping its Neutral rating in place.
The options market has already absorbed the news aggressively. The put/call ratio dropped to 0.49, nearly two standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.78 — that is the most bullishly skewed options positioning has been all year, sitting just above the 52-week low of 0.29. The shift is stark: barely a week ago the PCR was running above 0.83, territory it had occupied since early April when macro volatility dominated sentiment. The flip to call-heavy positioning in a single week reflects a genuine change in how options participants are reading the setup, not just drift.
Short interest is fading quietly in the background, which adds to the constructive read. At 3.7% of free float and falling — down roughly 6% from peak levels hit on April 22-23 — the short base is neither large nor growing. The borrow market confirms there is no meaningful pressure: cost to borrow is 0.47%, cheap by any measure, and availability is far from tight. The ORTEX short score of 36.9 sits comfortably in the lower half of the range, consistent with a stock where bears are trimming rather than building. This is not a squeeze setup; it is simply a stock where short interest is running off.
Analyst consensus remains constructive, but the Street is divided on pace. BofA holds a Buy and recently carried a $237 target. JP Morgan is Overweight with a $229 target. UBS trimmed its target to $245 from $260 in April — still Buy-rated, but reflecting a more selective view on near-term catalysts. The mean target across the coverage group runs around $244, implying roughly 25% upside from the current $195 close. The P/E multiple has compressed to about 7.7x and the EV/EBITDA to 4.6x — both pointing to a stock the Street views as cheap on earnings power, even if natural gas price uncertainty caps enthusiasm. Factor scores underline the valuation argument: GPOR ranks in the 94th percentile on EV/EBIT efficiency within the ORTEX universe.
Institutional ownership adds an important subplot. Silver Point Capital, the company's largest holder at around 14% of shares, sold over 840,000 shares in early March — a reduction that coincided with a wave of insider selling across the executive team, including the CFO and Chairman. The net insider position over 90 days is a net sell of roughly $185 million in value. The Silver Point reduction is the dominant driver of that figure. The firm retains a board seat and still holds the largest single block, but the direction of travel at the top of the register is worth noting.
The practical question now is what Dell'Osso's appointment signals about strategy. Early media coverage frames this as the "start of a new era," with speculation already surfacing about whether the new CEO — who oversaw M&A activity at Expand Energy — might pursue acquisitions in Appalachia. The Q1 earnings call transcript is already available, and GPOR filed its 10-Q for the March quarter on May 6. The combination of fresh financials, a defined leadership mandate, and a bullish flip in options positioning makes the next analyst action — and any concrete statement from Dell'Osso on capital allocation — the key thing to watch.
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