F.N.B. Corporation heads into its May 6 Q1 results with short sellers at their most aggressive in months — and the Street, for now, refusing to follow them.
The scale of the short build is the defining feature of this setup. Short interest in FNB has nearly doubled since mid-March, climbing from roughly 3.9% of free float to 6.2% today — a 58% increase over the past month alone. The move accelerated meaningfully around April 10, when SI % FF crossed 6% for the first time in the period. Week-on-week, shorts added another 2.5% to their position. With days to cover at 2.47 per the most recent FINRA settlement data, the position is not yet extreme by squeeze metrics, but the direction is unambiguous. Bears have been adding steadily into a stock that is actually up 8.3% over the past month.
The lending market is wide open, and that matters for interpreting the short build. Borrow availability is loose — cost to borrow has eased to 0.41%, down roughly 19% on the week, and remains near multi-month lows despite the accumulation of short interest. Availability in the lending pool is not being stressed by the demand. That tells a clear story: this is not a squeeze-prone position. Shorts can enter and exit easily. Options positioning broadly corroborates the cautious tone — the put/call ratio runs at 1.10, in line with its 20-day average of 1.02 and with a z-score near zero. There is no unusual options hedging activity to flag; sentiment here is balanced rather than charged.
The analyst community reads the stock very differently from the shorts. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised its target to $21 (from $20) on April 20, maintaining its Outperform rating. Truist Securities, also on April 20, lifted its target to $20 (from $19.50) while keeping a Buy. Both firms moved after FNB's most recent earnings event. The mean Street target is $20.38, implying roughly 16% upside to the current price of $17.53. The bull case centres on fee-income diversification through capital markets, a disciplined underwriting culture, and a differentiated digital platform. Bears point to credit deterioration risk, slower loan growth, and rising regulatory costs. Valuation provides some support for the bulls: the stock trades at 9.7x trailing earnings and 0.85x book — neither multiple is stretched. The dividend score ranks in the 85th percentile, reflecting FNB's consistent $0.12 quarterly dividend track record.
A cluster of insider sells on March 18 is worth noting in context. The CFO, CEO, Chief Legal Officer, and several other executives all sold on the same date, at $16.11 per share. The aggregate net value across all insider activity over the 90-day window is a positive $3.8 million, suggesting the sells are consistent with routine compensation-plan disposals rather than a directional bet. All transactions carried the lowest significance score (1 out of 10). The stock has since risen roughly 9% from that sell price.
Recent earnings reactions have been orderly. Following the April 17 announcement, FNB moved up 2.5% on the day. The two events in April 15–16 produced a modest -1.9% to +0.3% range. None of the recent prints triggered an outsized move in either direction. Close peers ONB and FULT both fell roughly 2% on the week, suggesting the sector backdrop is modestly negative heading into the May reporting window.
What to watch on May 6: the tension between a 58% surge in short interest and a Street consensus that remains firmly constructive makes the Q1 print a direct test of which side has the better read on FNB's credit quality and fee-income trajectory.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open FNB 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.
