KEP enters Friday's earnings release having lost nearly 12% in a week — a rough approach that frames the question of whether the quarterly print can reverse the recent slide or deepen it.
The price move is the sharpest signal heading in. The NYSE-listed ADR for Korea Electric Power Corporation dropped 1.4% on Wednesday alone and has shed almost 7% over the past month, closing at $13.78. That kind of accumulated pressure into a scheduled event typically sharpens the market's focus on any guidance language, particularly for a utility carrying heavy sovereign influence — South Korea's government and the Korea Development Bank together own more than 51% of the company.
Options traders, however, are positioned more bullishly than the price slide might suggest. The put/call ratio has fallen to 0.33, almost a full standard deviation below its 20-day average of 0.35, and well beneath the highs above 0.80 seen in early April when trade-war anxiety was running hot. That shift in options sentiment — from protective puts to call-skewed positioning — marks a meaningful reversal from the defensive crouch of six weeks ago and implies that at least the derivatives market is not bracing for further downside.
Short interest tells a similar story: this is not a heavily-shorted name. Estimated short interest declined 22% over the past week to around 801,000 shares, erasing a mid-week spike to over one million. Days to cover runs at just 1.2, borrow costs are a negligible 0.60% annualised, and availability in the lending market remains ample. The ORTEX short score of 36.8 — which ranks in the 86th percentile for the short interest factor but reflects a low absolute level — confirms there is no meaningful squeeze dynamic at work here.
The ownership structure is the genuinely distinctive feature of this stock. The Korean state (via the government and KDB) controls the majority, the National Pension Service holds a further 7.8%, and the employee share scheme adds another 1.5%. That leaves under 40% genuinely in the market's hands. BlackRock added roughly 1.8 million shares in the most recent reported period, and JP Morgan Asset Management added around 198,000 — small flows in the context of the total register, but directionally constructive. Analyst coverage for the NYSE ADR is essentially absent in current form — the most recent rating changes on record date to 2016, so no Wall Street consensus meaningfully shapes near-term positioning.
History adds a note of caution. KEPCO's February 2026 print produced a one-day drop of nearly 15% and a five-day loss of more than 27%. The preceding quarter delivered a similar blow. That pattern establishes that earnings events have, in recent history, been severe catalysts to the downside — making Friday's release a test of whether improving options sentiment and retreating short interest reflect genuine confidence, or simply a quiet market that has not yet positioned for the news.
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