Options traders are the most bullish on FERG in a year. That signal landed just as analysts raised targets and short interest ticked higher — three distinct data streams pointing in the same direction.
FERG's put-call ratio dropped to 0.69 on May 11. That's 2.2 standard deviations below the 20-day mean of 0.87. It's the lowest reading in 52 weeks. The 52-week range runs from 0.28 to 1.58, so current positioning sits firmly in bullish territory but well off the all-time extreme. The shift is abrupt. The PCR had sat between 0.83 and 0.91 for most of the prior three weeks before collapsing in a single session.
Three separate firms raised price targets on FERG in the days surrounding the May 5 earnings print. Wells Fargo lifted its target from $260 to $285, maintaining Overweight. RBC Capital moved from $271 to $281, keeping Outperform. Barclays nudged from $295 to $297, also Overweight. The consensus target now sits at $284.91. The stock closed at $243.98 on May 11 — implying roughly 17% upside to the mean analyst target. All three target hikes came after earnings, which produced a -3.3% one-day move but appear not to have dented the bullish analyst tone.
Short interest is sub-1% of free float at 0.92%. That's low in absolute terms. But it has climbed 8.7% week-on-week to around 1.8 million shares. Cost to borrow spiked 96% over one week to 0.83% before pulling back to 0.50% — noisy, but indicative of demand for borrows. The borrow market remains very loose overall, with availability well in excess of what's needed to cover the short position. The lending market is not under pressure.
Wellington Management added 5.6 million shares in its last reported period — the largest absolute change among top holders. WCM Investment Management added 1.7 million shares. FMR (Fidelity) added 1.5 million. Vanguard added 1.1 million. The weight of institutional money has been moving in one direction.
Data summary
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