Arrow Electronics heads into its May 1 Q1 2026 earnings call with one of the most striking signals in the options market: call buyers are overwhelmingly in control, even as the stock has already surged 32% over the past month.
The clearest indication that traders are leaning bullish comes from options flow. The put/call ratio has collapsed to just 0.14 — nearly 1.75 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.26. In plain terms, there are roughly seven calls traded for every one put right now. That's an unusually lopsided setup for a stock on the cusp of a quarterly print, and it contrasts sharply with the defensive hedging patterns more commonly seen as earnings approach. The 52-week range on the PCR runs from 0.05 to 2.19, placing the current reading near the bullish extreme.
The street gave Arrow a meaningful vote of confidence in the run-up to this print. Truist Securities upgraded the stock to Buy on April 13, lifting its target from $148 to $183 — essentially matching the current price around $184. That move followed a February earnings beat that sent the stock 15% higher the next session. Wells Fargo remains a persistent sceptic, holding its Underweight rating with a $115 target, a reading that looks increasingly out of step with where the stock is trading. The consensus mean target is $152.50, which is now below the market price — a signal that analyst targets are lagging the stock's recent re-rating rather than leading it. EPS momentum scores rank in the 75th to 80th percentile, supporting the view that estimate revisions have been running in the right direction. The EV/EBITDA multiple has drifted lower over the past month to 9.4x, even as the stock rallied, which suggests the market is giving Arrow credit for improving earnings power rather than simply re-rating the multiple upward.
Short positioning tells a much calmer story. SI runs at 3.5% of the free float — not a trivial level, but well short of anything that looks like a crowded bet against the company. Over the past month, shorts actually trimmed positions by roughly 6%. The borrow market is entirely loose: cost to borrow has fallen 35% over that same stretch to just 0.35% annualised, and availability remains wide open. There is no meaningful squeeze pressure here, and nothing in the lending data points to elevated conviction on the short side. The ORTEX short score sits at 34.97, comfortably mid-range.
Close peer AVT — the most correlated name in the electronics distribution space — added to the constructive backdrop by reporting a Q3 earnings beat on April 29, gaining roughly 4% on the week. That result may have contributed to the call-heavy flow in ARW options, as traders looked to piggyback on the sector read-through ahead of Arrow's own numbers. Other peers including LFUS and BDC retreated between 2% and 4% on the week, underlining that the bullish positioning in ARW is more stock-specific than a sector-wide trade.
The earnings history adds relevant texture. Arrow printed a 15% next-day gain after its February 2026 release, following a 4% rise after Q3 2025. The one print that broke the pattern was Q4 2025, where the stock fell nearly 4% and continued drifting lower over the following week. With ACR Alpine Capital Research holding a 6.8% stake — added in size as recently as February — and director William Austen picking up nearly $600,000 worth of stock around the same time, there is meaningful patient capital in the register. Whether that institutional conviction and the options bulls are reading the same playbook becomes clear when Arrow opens its books on May 1.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open ARW 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.
