Charter Communications enters the final days of May with short interest still deeply elevated at 16.7% of the free float — down fractionally from the week's peak but up 13% over the past seven days and 22% over the past month, leaving bears firmly in control of the tape.
Short positioning tells a story of sustained conviction rather than a squeeze set-up. SI % of free float climbed sharply on May 26-27 before easing slightly to 16.7% on May 28 — a level that remains near the highest in ORTEX's trailing data window. The 13% weekly rise in shares short is notable given that short interest had been anchored in the 18.4-19.1 million range through most of May before jumping to 21.5 million. Yet the borrow market offers no friction to new shorts: cost to borrow is running at just 0.43%, down roughly 6% on the week, while availability sits at 130% — meaning there are comfortably more shares available to lend than there are currently borrowed. That is squarely in the "tight but not stressed" range, and a long way from the sub-70% availability that would signal genuine squeeze pressure. Options traders, however, are not playing along with the bears. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.51 — the lowest reading of the past 52 weeks — and 1.6 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.58. That is the most call-heavy positioning Charter has seen all year, a sharp reversal from the 0.84 readings in late April when the stock was in freefall.
The Street has been broadly negative since the April 24 earnings disaster, when CHTR fell 27.8% in a single session after results missed badly. Post-print, JP Morgan reinstated coverage at Neutral with a $215 target, Citigroup cut its Buy target from $290 to $230, and RBC trimmed to $220 while maintaining Sector Perform. The consensus mean target is $243, implying roughly 69% upside from the current $144 price — but that gap reflects how far and fast the stock has fallen rather than fresh bullish conviction. The bear case is straightforward: fixed wireless and LEO competition squeezing broadband pricing, elevated leverage, and execution risk on the Cox acquisition. Bulls counter that the network buildout, improving churn trends, and the multi-modal connectivity push give Charter a defensible long-term position. EV/EBITDA at 5.4x and a P/E near 3.5x are historically cheap for a company with this infrastructure base. The ORTEX short score sits at 75.4 — in the bottom few percentiles of the universe — underscoring the degree to which data-driven signals remain aligned with the bears despite the valuation discount.
The insider picture adds a layer of complexity. The CEO Christopher Winfrey and two board members bought shares near $172-$175 on April 28, close to what proved to be the post-crash low. That signal looked constructive. Since then, Director Emeritus Thomas Rutledge has sold more than $12.7 million worth of stock across three transactions between May 26-27 alone, and Liberty Broadband — Charter's largest single shareholder with a 31.5% stake — sold 1.26 million shares on May 12 at approximately $204, generating over $257 million in proceeds. Liberty's continued reduction of its position is the dominant insider flow theme and carries more weight than the board buybacks at the lows.
The closest peer, LBRD.K, fell 2.1% on the day and 3.1% on the week — essentially in lockstep with CHTR given its near-perfect 99.9% correlation. CABO, a smaller pure-play cable operator, fell 7% on the day though gained 10% on the week, suggesting idiosyncratic volatility rather than a sector-wide bid. The next earnings event is scheduled for July 24, and between now and then the focus for this stock is whether the short interest continues to build through the 17% threshold, whether Liberty Broadband accelerates its selling, and whether the call-heavy options positioning that has emerged at these lows holds or reverses as the print approaches.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open CHTR 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.
