The short build in Bristol-Myers Squibb has continued at pace since Tuesday's note. Short interest now stands at 2.32% of free float — up another 20.8% in a single week and 60% over the past month. Bears that were "growing but not crowded" two days ago are growing faster still.
Short shares outstanding reached 47.3 million as of June 4, up from 41.6 million at the time of the previous article. The pace is accelerating: roughly 5.4 million new shares added in two days. Days to cover sits at 3.5 per the latest FINRA settlement data. The ORTEX short score has nudged to 33.7, its highest reading over the past two weeks, with the move entirely concentrated in the last four sessions.
Cost to borrow has tripled over the past month — rising nearly 200% — and peaked at 0.96% on June 3 before settling at 0.73% on June 4. That remains a low absolute rate. Availability in the lending pool is vast at over 6,600%, meaning no friction exists for new entrants. This is a short-side story driven by conviction, not by forced covering or a tight borrow.
The put/call ratio has eased back slightly to 0.845 from the 0.93 spike flagged earlier this week. The PCR is now marginally below its 20-day mean of 0.876. That pullback in defensive options demand — even as short interest hits new highs — may suggest hedgers have already positioned and fresh activity is moving directly into the borrow market rather than via puts.
The next earnings event is confirmed for July 30. The last two quarterly prints produced muted 1-day moves of +1.1% and -1.4%, with negative 5-day drift in both cases. That pattern may be informing the positioning: bears appear to be building ahead of the catalyst, not reacting to it.
The consensus remains buy, with a mean price target of $63.08 — roughly 11% above Thursday's close of $56.60. The most recent target changes, from B of A and Cantor Fitzgerald in early April, were modest adjustments rather than directional shifts. Piper Sandler and Barclays both carry $75 targets. The gap between analyst optimism and the short-side accumulation is the central tension in this name right now.
JP Morgan Asset Management added nearly 12.9 million shares in its most recent filing — the largest change among the top 15 institutional holders. That is a meaningful counter-signal to the short build, and worth watching alongside the July earnings date.
What to watch: whether short interest crosses 3% of float before July 30, and whether the PCR re-accelerates toward its 52-week high of 1.12 as the earnings window tightens.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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