IHRT heads into its May 14 earnings release riding one of the more striking one-month reversals in the broadcasting space.
Options traders have flipped decisively bullish — that is the sharpest signal heading into the print. The put/call ratio has collapsed to 0.69, well below its 20-day average of 1.15, touching its lowest level in the past year. For most of April, puts outnumbered calls by more than two-to-one. That spread has now inverted, pointing to a rapid shift in sentiment from defensive hedging toward call-side positioning. The move coincides with a 52% rally in the share price across April and into early May, lifting the stock to $5.49.
Short interest offers no real counterweight. Bears control just 3.3% of the free float — a thin position that has drifted slightly lower over the past month. Borrow costs are negligible at 0.63%, and availability remains ample, suggesting there is no meaningful lending-market friction in either direction. The ORTEX short score of 39.8 ranks in the bottom half of the universe. Whatever conviction drove the stock's multi-week surge, it was not a short-squeeze dynamic.
The debate heading into the print is structural. iHeartMedia carries roughly $4.6 billion in net debt against an enterprise value near $4.4 billion, leaving the equity as a highly leveraged call option on its EBITDA trajectory. Analysts are split: Guggenheim has maintained a Buy for several years, while Goldman Sachs downgraded to Sell in early January 2026 (the most recent significant move, setting a $3.50 target below the current price). The analyst consensus price target of $3.13 sits nearly 43% below Monday's close — a gap that demands scrutiny, though some of those targets predate the recent rally. The ORTEX analyst return potential reads -45%, reflecting that overhang. Bulls point to operating cash flow of $302 million and an EV/EBITDA around 5.4x as evidence that the debt load is manageable; bears argue the $419 million annual interest bill leaves little room for error if advertising revenue softens.
CEO Robert Pittman added shares at prices around $3.00 in early March, a buy-in well below the current level. The one historical earnings reaction on record — the March 2026 print — produced a 6% one-day drop and a 17% slide over the following five days. That episode is a fresh reminder of the downside velocity this stock can achieve when results disappoint.
The May 14 report will therefore test whether the operating metrics justify a price that has already run far ahead of where the analyst community drew its lines.
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