Celsius Holdings reports Q1 results on May 28 with short sellers adding pressure and the Street trimming expectations — yet options traders remain notably calm.
Short interest is the most charged signal heading into the print. At 9.5% of free float, it has climbed roughly 8% over the past month, with the majority of that build concentrated in the past two weeks as shares crossed from the mid-$30s to below $30. The ORTEX short score runs at 62.8, placing Celsius in the bottom decile of its universe on that measure. Despite that positioning, the borrow market is not under stress: cost to borrow is a low 0.50%, and availability is running at 182% — meaning more than enough shares remain in the lending pool to absorb further short demand without a squeeze.
Options positioning tells a quieter story. The put/call ratio is 0.41, slightly below its 20-day average of 0.42 and near the lower end of its 52-week range. That is not the pattern of a market hedging aggressively into a feared print — it reads closer to indifference. The stock itself has lost 14% over the past month to close at $29.67, but recovered about 2% on the week, and sits roughly 37% lower year-to-date. Peers MNST and are broadly flat to slightly positive on the week, making Celsius's prolonged underperformance a company-specific story rather than a sector one.
The analyst debate centres on whether Celsius can prove its growth story still holds. Bulls point to the PepsiCo distribution partnership, the Alani Nu integration, and a forward earnings trajectory that ranks in the 92nd percentile for year-on-year EPS growth. BNP Paribas cut its target to $57 from $70 on May 26 while keeping an Outperform rating — still implying roughly 90% upside from current levels. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley both trimmed targets earlier this month, but neither abandoned positive ratings. The consensus mean target at $61 reflects a Street that sees value in the brand but is becoming more selective on the near-term execution. Bears flag intensifying competition in the zero-sugar energy segment and execution risk as the Alani Nu transition proceeds, with the concern that near-term revenue momentum could disappoint even as the long-run thesis remains intact.
Earnings history adds context: the last two prints both produced negative five-day reactions of roughly 11-12%, a pattern that short sellers appear to be positioning around again. The May 28 release is therefore less about whether Celsius is a growth brand and more about whether the Alani Nu integration and PepsiCo channel are delivering the tangible volume inflection that would justify owning a stock the market has already marked down by more than a third this year.
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