eBay heads into its June 17 earnings call with short sellers rebuilding positions at a meaningful pace — even as the stock drifts off recent highs and the broader peer group rallies hard around it.
The most striking tension this week is directional: the stock is down 5.6% over the past five sessions to $108.88, while peers like ETSY and GLBE gained 8.4% and 12.2% respectively. AMZN shed 3.3% on the week — a rare companion in negative territory — but that divergence is notable. eBay is lagging a cohort that is, in aggregate, running higher. Short sellers appear to have noticed.
Short interest has climbed sharply, rising 21% over the past month to reach 3.8% of the free float — its highest reading in the 30-day window captured here. The move has been concentrated in the past two weeks: from roughly 2.8% of float in mid-May to 3.8% by June 2, an increase of around one full percentage point in a fortnight. That's a material repositioning for a stock of this size, not just noise. The borrow market, however, tells a contrasting story. Availability is extraordinarily loose at 1,933% — meaning there are nearly twenty times as many shares available to borrow as are currently shorted. Cost to borrow remains negligible at 0.49%, barely moved week-on-week. The lending pool is not being stressed. Shorts are adding positions freely, not squeezing out.
Options positioning has also leaned more cautious in recent weeks. The put/call ratio of 1.04 is above its 20-day mean of 0.98, though the z-score of 0.64 keeps it well within normal bounds — this is a mild tilt toward hedging rather than an aggressive directional bet. The PCR touched its 52-week low of 0.66 in early May, then pivoted to consistently above 1.0 from mid-May onward. That shift in options sentiment broadly tracks the short interest build, suggesting the same cautious repositioning is visible across both markets ahead of the June 17 print.
The Street's reaction to April's Q1 results was broadly constructive, with nearly every covering firm raising its price target following the beat. Goldman Sachs lifted to $100, JPMorgan to $100, Morgan Stanley to $121, and Barclays to $114 — all while maintaining existing ratings rather than upgrading. Citi's Ronald Josey stood out, raising his target to $127 on May 13 while keeping his Buy intact. The mean target now sits near $108, essentially in line with the current price, which implies the Street sees the stock as fairly valued after its post-earnings pop. Bulls point to eBay's advertising growth, shareholder returns, and the Depop acquisition's long-term positioning in recommerce. Bears flag the competitive pressure from larger platforms, potential margin dilution from Depop, and an advertising revenue ceiling that limits upside in the core business. The 12-month forward EPS growth estimate ranks in the 88th percentile across the universe — a legitimately strong reading — but the EV/EBIT multiple at just the 24th percentile suggests the market isn't yet paying up for that growth.
The insider picture deserves a mention. The CTO, Mazen Al-Rawashdeh, sold approximately $5.85 million worth of stock on May 22 across multiple transactions, with prices ranging from $116 to $119 — well above the current $108.88. CEO Jamie Iannone also sold around $906,000 in early May near $110. The 90-day net value across all insiders is a positive $17.9 million due to award grants, but the recent cash sales from the C-suite at prices above current levels add a layer of context: those transactions happened at what now looks like the recent peak.
With earnings confirmed for June 17, the next two weeks bring the key data point. The last two prints each produced a 3.1% gain the next day and a further rally of roughly 7-8% over the following five sessions — a pattern that would suggest post-result optimism has been the base case. Whether shorts use that window to cover or press harder is the central positioning question heading into the week.
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