Phillips 66 has climbed 16.6% in a month. Now the options market is pushing back.
The put-call ratio hit 0.96 on May 19 — nearly 2.6 standard deviations above its 20-day mean of 0.89. That's the most skewed options sentiment on record for this stock in nearly a year, with the 52-week high sitting at 1.22. Options traders are buying downside protection at an unusual rate, even as the stock continues to grind higher.
The options signal isn't isolated. Short interest climbed 17.1% in a single week to 7.3 million shares — 1.82% of free float as of May 18. That's still a low absolute level, but the rate of change is the story. Shorts added positions aggressively into the rally, betting the momentum stalls.
The ORTEX short score ticked up to 31.4, its highest reading in the past two weeks, up from 29.9 on May 8.
Analysts recently upgraded their view. Morgan Stanley lifted PSX to Overweight from Equal-Weight on April 24, raising the target to $174. UBS sits even higher at $212. Wells Fargo has $201.
But several major names — Citi, Barclays, Piper Sandler, Goldman Sachs — are parked at Neutral despite raising targets. The consensus mean target is $187, only 2.8% above the current price of $182.38. The stock has nearly caught up to where the street thought it was going.
CFO Kevin Mitchell sold 29,400 shares on May 8 for just under $5 million. He sold again on May 11. Over the past 90 days, insiders net sold shares worth roughly $33 million. A single director purchase of 175 shares — twice — barely registers against that flow.
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