Asana heads into its June 1 earnings report carrying one of the heavier short positions in the software sector, with bulls and bears sharply divided over whether the company can grow its way out of a profitability hole.
Short sellers have built a commanding position. Short interest runs at 20.3% of the free float — up 10% over the past month — and 4.5 days to cover, with the ORTEX short score at 63.2. That score has eased from a recent peak near 67 in mid-May, largely because borrow conditions remain accommodating rather than strained. Availability is 344%, meaning there are roughly three shares available to borrow for every one already shorted. Cost to borrow is just 0.54%. The message from the lending market is that the high short interest reflects genuine bearish conviction, not a mechanically constrained squeeze dynamic.
Options traders paint a different picture. The put/call ratio has drifted down to 0.28 — near the 52-week low of 0.27 and below its 20-day average of 0.29. That leans call-heavy, suggesting the options market is more bullish-tilted than usual into the print. The stock itself has quietly recovered, adding 4.7% on the week and 6.7% over the past month to close at $6.66 — a modest rebound against a backdrop that has been deeply negative year-to-date.
The analyst community has been in retreat. Following last quarter's below-consensus FY27 guidance, a wave of firms cut targets in early March — Morgan Stanley dropped from $14 to $8 (maintaining Underweight), UBS slashed from $16 to $9, and RBC moved from $11 to $7. Piper Sandler then downgraded outright in mid-April, cutting to Neutral from Overweight with a $7 target. The consensus mean target is now $9.44, about 42% above the current price, but that gap reflects how far the stock has fallen rather than renewed optimism. One lone voice — Citi — holds a Buy with a $13 target, anchoring the bull case to AI-driven margin expansion and large-customer retention above $100K ARR. Bears counter with a CFO transition, persistent small-business headwinds, and the drag that product-led growth dynamics are exerting on ARR expansion.
Institutionally, co-founder Dustin Moskovitz controls 55% of shares, which compresses the tradeable float and amplifies the weight of the 20% short position against it. Arrowstreet, D.E. Shaw, Point72, and Millennium all added meaningfully in Q1 — a quiet accumulation of smart-money names that sits in tension with the elevated short interest. The only notable insider movement in recent months has been routine CFO and secretary sells, modest in scale and likely tied to vesting schedules.
The June 1 print will test whether Asana's AI investment narrative can produce a guidance beat that shifts the current stalemate — where call-heavy options and institutional accumulation face off directly against one of the most crowded short positions in enterprise software.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open ASAN 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.
