Travere Therapeutics heads into early June with a familiar tension: analysts raising targets and the Street broadly bullish on FILSPARI's rare-disease story, while a 15.6% short interest and a cluster of insider selling in May signal that not everyone is leaning the same direction.
The positioning picture is one of genuine divergence. Short interest has climbed roughly 10% over the past month, reaching 15.6% of the free float — a meaningful level for a small biotech. That said, momentum appears to be stalling rather than accelerating. The week-over-week change was a modest -1.9%, and the month-over-month build happened largely between late April and mid-May before flattening out. Borrow remains cheap at 0.35%, well below where it was a month ago (down ~39% from May levels), and availability is extraordinarily loose at 1,260% — meaning there is roughly twelve times more supply in the lending pool than there are shares currently borrowed. That combination tells a clear story: the short thesis is not a squeezed, cornered trade. New shorts can open cheaply and easily, and existing shorts are not under pressure to cover.
Options traders are more constructive. The put/call ratio has dropped sharply to 0.94, sitting 1.6 standard deviations below its 20-day average of 1.16. For context, the PCR was running above 1.3 through most of early May — a markedly more defensive reading. The drift lower over the past two weeks points to reduced demand for downside protection, a signal that options participants see less near-term risk in the stock. That contrasts directly with the elevated short interest, and the contrast is the most interesting feature of TVTX's positioning right now.
The Street is firmly in the bull camp and getting more emphatic. HC Wainwright raised its target to $67 just yesterday — the most aggressive call in the group. Wells Fargo lifted to $50 last month, TD Cowen to $60, Citigroup to $59. Almost every recent action has been a raise, with ratings locked at Buy or Outperform across the board. The consensus mean target of $54.86 implies roughly 28% upside to Tuesday's close of $42.96. The bull case rests on FILSPARI's launch in IgA nephropathy and the newly expanded FSGS indication, which broadens the addressable patient population materially. The bear case, laid out in recent research, centres on seasonal revenue headwinds in Q1, the pace at which nephrologists switch patients at scheduled visits, and the lag before FSGS patients begin treatment — all of which could slow near-term revenue growth even if the long-term opportunity is intact. The EV/EBITDA multiple has drifted down slightly over 30 days (roughly 0.65 turns), though a P/E of 13.8x and an earnings yield in the low single digits keep valuation from reading as stretched. The stock's EPS surprise percentile ranks at the 98th — Travere has a habit of beating estimates.
The insider picture adds a note of caution. In early May, a broad sweep of executives sold shares — the CEO, CFO, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, and a pair of directors all disposed of stock between May 5 and May 15, with the CEO's $989k sale the largest single transaction. Most trades carried low significance scores, and the timing overlapped with the stock trading near recent highs in the mid-$40s. On a 90-day net basis the company shows net positive shares of 191k, suggesting the May selling is not the whole picture, but the breadth of the executive participation is worth noting. Institutional holders are broadly supportive: Janus Henderson, Fidelity, and Armistice have all added shares in recent reporting periods, with Armistice building a notable position above 5%.
Q2 results are due August 6. Between now and then, the dynamic to watch is whether FILSPARI's FSGS uptake data — which will begin appearing in management commentary and prescription trackers — shifts short sellers off their positions, or whether the revenue lag the bears describe materialises in the next quarter's print.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open TVTX 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.
