Pfizer heads into the back half of May with short interest at its highest level in six weeks, options sentiment tilting more defensive, and the Street divided on where the stock goes from a post-earnings $25.87.
The clearest move this week is in short positioning. SI % FF has climbed to 2.77% — up 30% from a month ago and well above the sub-2.2% floor seen in early April. The build accelerated sharply in early May, briefly touching 3.1% on May 8 before easing back. That intraday peak is the highest reading in the 30-day window. A 5% single-day drop in estimated short shares on May 12 looks like partial cover rather than a reversal. The lending market remains loose: availability is ample and cost to borrow is just 0.48% annually, holding the ORTEX short score at a moderate 35.8 — elevated compared to its sub-34 April baseline but far from extreme squeeze territory.
Options positioning tells the same cautious story. The put/call ratio has risen to 0.93, almost two standard deviations above its 20-day average of 0.88. That z-score of 1.78 is not at panic levels — the 52-week high is 1.05 — but the directional move since late April is consistent. PFE was running a PCR in the 0.83-0.86 range through most of April; each week since has pushed it higher. Borrow costs ticked up 3.5% over the week to reinforce the picture: the market is paying a little more to lean negative into July.
The Street's read is more nuanced than the positioning data implies. Analysts who moved recently have mostly been nudging targets higher in small increments — UBS raised to $27 in mid-April, Morgan Stanley pushed to $28 — while maintaining neutral or equal-weight ratings. That is the dominant tone: targets creeping up but ratings not following. The lone Underperform, from RBC Capital, anchors a $25 target squarely on the current price. On the bull side, CICC initiated at Outperform with a $33 target in April, and Guggenheim holds a $36 Buy — both well above the consensus mean of $29.11 and the stock's current level. Against a PE of 8.9x and EV/EBITDA of 8.0x, the valuation is undemanding, and the 12-month forward EPS growth rank scores in the 97th percentile — a genuine standout even if near-term momentum (ranked 48th and 45th percentile for 30-day and 90-day EPS momentum) is less inspiring.
One ownership note worth flagging: Fisher Asset Management nearly doubled its position in Q1, adding over 53 million shares to reach 105 million. That's a sizeable active manager bet at current prices. The index holders — Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street — all added modestly in recent periods, nothing unusual for a mega-cap. On the insider side, the most notable action was CEO Albert Bourla's February 25 sale of 467,241 shares at ~$26.92 for roughly $12.6 million. The cluster of exec sales that day across multiple C-suite names was almost certainly part of pre-scheduled trading plans, and all carry a significance score of 1. No insider buying is on record. The net 90-day position is mildly negative in dollar terms, dominated by that Bourla transaction.
The last earnings print on May 5 produced a modest +0.87% next-day move, followed by a -1.6% drift over five days — a small-magnitude, slightly negative reaction pattern. Q2 results are not due until July 28. Between now and then, the question is whether the short rebuild and options drift toward puts reflect genuine fundamental concern — gross-to-net adjustments on Vyndaqel and Ibrance have been a persistent bear case — or simply macro defensiveness from investors rotating cautiously across large pharma. The dividend score ranking at the 94th percentile keeps a floor of income demand under the stock; what to watch is whether the put/call ratio pushes through 0.95 and whether short interest confirms back above 3% of float as July earnings approach.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open PFE on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
