JPMorgan Chase has clawed back the losses flagged in last week's note, rising 3.7% over the past five days to $306.74 — but the same executives who sold into the May weakness are still selling into the recovery.
The insider pattern has not changed direction, only price. The General Counsel sold 5,468 shares on May 20 at $300.27, raising roughly $1.6 million. That followed five C-suite sales on May 15 — the heads of asset management, commercial banking, technology, and consumer banking each offloading between 3,165 and 6,648 shares at $298–$300 — and a prior cluster on May 5 from the CFO, COO, and Chief Risk Officer. The 90-day net across the executive suite now runs to approximately $152 million in sales across 508,000 shares. The price has moved up; the selling has not stopped. That symmetry is worth noting.
The short lending market offers no echo of concern. Short interest is minimal at under 1% of free float and has fallen 2.3% over the week. Borrow availability is effectively unlimited — the pool of shares available to lend dwarfs what is currently borrowed by a factor of roughly 100x, and cost to borrow is just 0.21%. This is not a stock where the lending market is telling any short-side story. Options positioning has nudged slightly more defensive: the put/call ratio ticked up to 1.13 on Tuesday, about 1.2 standard deviations above its 20-day average of 1.09. That is a mild lean toward protection, not a genuine hedging signal. The 52-week high on the PCR is 1.38, so there is considerable room before options traders look genuinely cautious.
The Street remains broadly constructive. The consensus is a buy, with a mean price target around $342 — implying roughly 11.5% upside from current levels. The most recent analyst actions, following Q1 earnings in mid-April, were uniformly positive on targets: Evercore ISI lifted to $340, Piper Sandler to $345, Truist and Jefferies both raised their figures while holding Hold ratings. The pattern reflects a Street that sees the fundamental case but is selective on timing. The ORTEX stock score of 77 supports that read — Growth is the standout pillar, lifted by a sharp jump in 12-month forward EPS momentum around early May, while Momentum remains the weakest leg at 43 with negative 91-day relative strength. The earnings yield factor ranks in the 72nd percentile on surprise, and the dividend score is in the 95th — not typically numbers that generate short-side urgency. Among peers, BAC gained 3.0% on the week, WFC rose 4.2%, and C added 3.6% — JPMorgan's recovery broadly matched the sector, neither leading nor lagging by a meaningful margin.
The previous note flagged the insider selling as the dominant thread. That thread is intact. The stock has recovered to above the levels at which the May 15 round of selling occurred, meaning executives who sold at $298–$300 are now underwater relative to current price — and the General Counsel added another sale on May 20. The next scheduled earnings event is July 14. Between now and then, the central question is whether further executive sales materialise at $306 and above, or whether the pace slows as the stock pushes toward the analyst consensus range near $342.
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