Banner Corporation enters the final week of April with an unusual pairing: the stock is up 5.5% on the week, yet short sellers are rebuilding positions at the fastest monthly pace in recent memory.
Short interest has become the dominant tension this week. SI climbed to 3.4% of the free float by April 28 — up from roughly 2.7% at the start of the month and nearly double the 1.9% level recorded in late March. That 75% one-month increase in shares short is notable for a mid-cap regional bank that rarely attracts aggressive positioning. The jump accelerated sharply around April 23, when reported shorts rose by more than 14% in a single session, pushing the float figure through 3.4% for the first time in the tracked window. Borrow availability remains ample — the lending market is not under any pressure, with cost to borrow running at just 0.54% annualised and the borrow pool not meaningfully stressed — so the SI build reflects deliberate new positioning rather than a forced technical squeeze.
Options tell a more balanced story. The put/call ratio has pulled back to 0.57, slightly above its 20-day average of 0.42 but well within one standard deviation — a z-score of just 0.81. Earlier in April the PCR hit its 52-week low near 0.09, suggesting options traders were heavily tilted toward calls when the stock was weaker. That skew has normalised as the price recovered, and the current PCR level points to a market that is hedging modestly rather than making a strong directional call in either direction.
The Street is split, but not dramatically. Piper Sandler raised its price target to $67 on April 27 — two days ago — while holding a Neutral rating. That target lands almost exactly at Monday's close of $67.37, leaving essentially no implied upside from the most recently updated analyst estimate. Raymond James and Stephens carry more constructive ratings (Outperform and Overweight, respectively), with targets in the low-to-mid $70s, pointing to consensus mean of around $72.67 — roughly 8% above the current price. Bulls point to strong deposit growth, rising net interest income, and earnings that have consistently beaten expectations: the EPS momentum factor rank sits in the 92nd percentile over 30 days and the 82nd percentile over 90 days. Bears note slowing loan originations, mortgage banking sensitivity to rates, and a Pacific Northwest credit cycle that has room to deteriorate. Valuation is undemanding — the price-to-book has expanded to about 1.06x over the past month and the P/E is running around 10.6x — but neither multiple is obviously stretched relative to regional bank peers.
The most recent earnings print, on April 22, produced a one-day move of 6.1% — a strong positive reaction that helps explain the stock's 12.8% rise over the past month. Banner's next scheduled update is May 20, giving the market three weeks to either absorb the Q1 beat or reassess. The cluster of small insider sells on April 2 — spread across multiple EVPs and the CFO, all at $60.86 — look like routine compensation-plan disposals rather than a signal of concern, given both the minimal individual sizes and the fact that the net 90-day insider position over the period actually shows net buying of roughly $486,000 in value terms. Institutional holders are broadly stable, with BlackRock and Vanguard together holding more than a quarter of shares and both adding modestly in Q1.
With short interest at a multi-month high and the stock near its most recent analyst target, the key tension heading into May 20 is whether the Q1 momentum — strong NII growth, deposit expansion, clean credit — holds up in Q2 guidance or whether the rebuilding short position proves prescient.
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