WeRide Inc. arrives at its May 13 earnings event having shed roughly a quarter of its short interest since late March — a meaningful retreat that reshapes how the market enters the print.
Short interest has dropped sharply over the past six weeks. From a peak near 5% of the free float at end-March, it has pulled back to 3.5% of float. The borrow market reflects that adjustment: availability has tightened to roughly 41% of short interest, meaning lenders hold fewer undeployed shares relative to what's already out on loan, yet the cost to borrow is low at under 1% annually. That combination — reduced short positioning and a still-snug but cheap lending market — suggests shorts have already trimmed rather than dug in ahead of the report. Options positioning reinforces the call-heavy tilt. WeRide's put/call ratio is running at 0.30, just modestly above its 20-day average of 0.28 and well below the 52-week high of 0.76. Traders are not crowding into downside protection.
The most compelling development in recent filings is the ownership story. Uber Technologies disclosed a new 5% stake (16.8 million shares) as of late March, representing a fresh position rather than a top-up. Morgan Stanley Investment Management added 8.9 million shares around the same period, bringing its total to nearly 14 million. Vanguard also initiated a position of 9.8 million shares in the first quarter. That cluster of fresh institutional buying — from a strategic partner and two large asset managers simultaneously — frames the print in a specific way: investors are clearly treating WeRide as more than a speculative AV name. On the insider side, a 5% shareholder purchased $11.8 million worth of shares at $2.49 in late March, though that transaction predates the recent price level of $7.51 and the conversion to a public float position.
The fundamental debate is straightforward for a company at this stage. WeRide burns cash — trailing losses run to roughly $239 million on estimated revenues of $169 million, and operating cash outflow was $158 million. Bulls, including HSBC (initiating at Buy with an $11.40 target in March), Bank of America, and Citigroup, all initiated with Buy ratings over the past year and see a pathway to commercialisation in autonomous ride-hailing across China, UAE, and Singapore. Bears note the company trades at over 11x EV/revenue with negative EBITDA, no clear path to profitability, and a stock that has already rebounded sharply — up 19% in a single day after the March earnings report. That prior reaction, with a further 12% gain over the following five days, sets a demanding bar. The stock is now priced at $7.51, while analyst targets from bellwether initiations have clustered in the $11-$15 range. The gap is wide enough to be encouraging for bulls but also reflects how much execution risk the Street is still discounting.
Wednesday's print is therefore less about whether WeRide is a real business and more about whether the pace of commercial deployment — measured in cities, licensing milestones, and cash consumption — justifies the institutional vote of confidence registered in Q1 filings.
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