OKLO heads into the post-earnings week with an unusual combination: a stock that has surged 47% in a month, a founder-led selling wave, shorts who are actually reducing exposure, and a newly initiated JP Morgan that isn't yet convinced.
Insiders delivered the clearest signal of the week. On May 1 — just eleven days before the company's first-ever earnings print — Founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte sold roughly 100,000 shares across multiple tranches for combined proceeds of approximately $7 million. Founder and COO Caroline Cochran sold a further 100,000 shares for around $7 million. CFO Richard Bealmear added another $1.1 million in sales. In total, Oklo insiders offloaded more than $15 million worth of stock in a single day, with the 90-day insider net sitting at roughly $46.5 million in net selling. These were disposals at prices in the $69–$71 range, comfortably below the current $73.63 close, suggesting the sellers were not anticipating the post-earnings rally rather than fleeing from it — but the scale of the exits, from three of Oklo's most senior names simultaneously, is worth noting.
The short side tells a counterintuitive story. Despite a 47% one-month price gain, short sellers have been reducing rather than pressing their bets. Short interest as a percentage of free float has pulled back from a recent peak near 19.1% at end-April to 17.1% now — a drop of roughly 7.6% in share terms over the past week alone. The borrow market remains fairly available for a stock this heavily shorted: cost to borrow is just 1.07%, barely above the one-month average and nowhere near the levels that would indicate a squeeze. Borrow availability has tightened notably since early April — when utilisation was around 55–70% — and now runs at 85%, still 12 points below the 52-week peak of 96.7%. The message is that shorts are cautious but not panicking. They are trimming into strength rather than covering in fear.
Options positioning sits close to neutral. The put/call ratio is 0.71, slightly above its 20-day mean of 0.69, with a z-score of 0.42 — unremarkable by any standard. The ratio has been drifting higher over the past three weeks as the stock climbed, but it remains well inside the year's range of 0.49 to 1.15. There is no sign of unusual hedging demand or aggressive directional conviction from the options market.
The Street picture is a study in fresh divergence. JP Morgan opened coverage on May 11 with a Neutral rating and an $83 target — essentially in line with the current price and a deliberate underweight statement relative to more enthusiastic peers. Cantor Fitzgerald holds its ground at Overweight with a $122 target, and Wedbush reiterated Outperform at $110 as recently as today. The consensus mean price target is $91.21, implying roughly 24% potential upside from current levels. That consensus, however, blends some distinctly cautious notes: Goldman Sachs and Citigroup both hold Neutral ratings, and UBS is Neutral at $60 — below where the stock already trades. The bear case centres on the company's cash-management approach, the absence of revenue, and uncertainty around its fuel strategy. The bull case rests on Oklo's liquid metal fast reactor technology, government support, and a dual-revenue model covering both power generation and nuclear fuel recycling.
On valuation, the standard ratios offer little traction for a pre-revenue company — the P/E and EV/EBITDA are deeply negative. What matters to investors here is the factor score picture: EPS momentum ranks in the 87th and 93rd percentiles over 30 and 90 days respectively, and EPS surprise is at the 91st percentile. Oklo beat Q1 estimates with a loss of $0.19 against a consensus of $0.20, a narrow but meaningful beat for a company where every data point is scrutinised. The analyst recommendation differential factor ranks at the 98th percentile — meaning the gap between where analysts are and where they could be remains unusually wide, which typically reflects a relatively young and contested coverage universe. The short score is 69, near the top of its recent range but steady over the past week.
Institutional ownership adds one more twist. BlackRock added over 6.2 million shares in the most recent reported period, now holding 8.5% of shares outstanding. Van Eck added 1.3 million shares; Mirae Asset added 880,000. These are meaningful inflows from serious investors — though they contrast with Jacob DeWitte's institutional holding entry showing a net change of -9.6 million shares, underlining just how much founder stock has moved in recent months. The next scheduled event is a Q2 results call on June 3. What to watch between now and then is whether short interest continues its gradual retreat into the mid-teens, and whether the insider selling accelerates or pauses now that the first earnings print is behind the company.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open OKLO 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.
