Anheuser-Busch InBev stock has gained 12% in a month. Short sellers are not backing down. Four converging signals — rising short interest, a tightening borrow market, surging cost to borrow, and a record put-call ratio — paint a picture of bears pressing hard against a rising tide.
The rally has fundamental backing. BUD posted Q1 earnings on May 5 that sent the stock up 11% in a single session. JP Morgan's Celine Pannuti responded by raising her price target to $93.83 from $84, maintaining Overweight. Wells Fargo's Chris Carey lifted his target to $93, up from $88. The consensus mean target now sits at $92.28. The stock closed Friday at $79.89 — implying roughly 15% upside to the street's average estimate.
Despite the earnings pop, shorts added exposure. Estimated short interest rose 8.6% over the past week to around 6.1 million shares. The one-month change is a more modest 2.4%, but the recent acceleration stands out. Shorts are not covering — they are building. Short interest as a percentage of free float is not at extreme levels, but the directional move matters.
The lending market tells the more urgent story. Cost to borrow has more than doubled in a week, rising from roughly 1.0% to 1.94% APR. That kind of move in a week signals real competition for available shares.
Availability has dropped sharply. Utilization hit 96.6% on May 7, close to the 52-week peak of 100%. That translates to an extremely tight borrow market — fewer than one share available for every twenty-five already lent out. In practical terms, initiating or expanding a short position in BUD right now is expensive, and getting harder.
The options market registered a striking divergence on May 8. The put-call ratio hit 0.961 — the highest level on record in the trailing 52 weeks, against a prior low of 0.498. The 20-day mean PCR sat at 0.743. The resulting Z-score of 3.05 means Friday's put activity was more than three standard deviations above the recent norm.
Unusually heavy put buying while the stock rises suggests hedging rather than directional bearishness. Large holders may be locking in gains from the post-earnings rally.
The next earnings date is July 30. Between now and then, the key tension is whether continued price strength forces short covering — at a time when the borrow market is already near capacity — or whether options hedging activity presages a broader institutional unwind after the recent run.
Data summary
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