Options traders are turning bullish on LI. The borrow market tells a different story.
The put/call ratio hit 0.63 this week — a 52-week low and 2.6 standard deviations below its 20-day mean. That signals rising call demand ahead of the May 28 earnings report. Yet the lending market is flashing extreme stress at the same moment, creating a sharp divergence between options sentiment and short-selling dynamics.
Availability has collapsed to just 5.1% — meaning roughly one share remains available for every 20 already borrowed. That is near the 52-week floor of 0.06%.
Four consecutive sessions last week saw availability drop below 1%. On May 14, it hit 0.25%. The borrow pool is effectively exhausted.
Cost to borrow jumped to 1.29%, up 394% in one week. That is a significant re-pricing of risk for anyone trying to establish or maintain a short position now.
Li Auto's short score stands at 64.1. Its utilization rank is the highest in the market — ranked 1st out of the entire universe tracked by ORTEX. The days-to-cover sits at 8.51 based on the most recent official FINRA data.
The PCR of 0.63 sits just above the 52-week low of 0.61. Call volume is dominating. Traders appear to be positioning for a positive earnings outcome on May 28.
That sets up an unusual tension. Short sellers are pinned — they cannot easily add to positions when availability is this tight. Any positive earnings surprise could trigger rapid covering with limited stock available to borrow.
The last two earnings prints both moved the stock lower: –5.2% in March 2026 and –4.7% in February. The options market is betting this time is different.
The most recent analyst moves have been cautious. JP Morgan maintained Underweight in March with a $15.50 target. Jefferies downgraded to Hold in January, slashing its target from $28.80 to $17.50. Citigroup sits at Neutral with an $18.50 target — roughly where the stock is trading now.
The consensus is "buy" across 7 analysts, but the majority of recent activity has been cuts. The mean price target of $143.81 appears to reflect a handful of outlier bull calls pulling the average sharply higher.
BlackRock added 640,648 shares as of April 30. CSOP Asset Management built its position by 4.775 million shares through May 4. These are the only notable institutional movers in recent filings.
Data summary
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