DHT Holdings enters the second half of June with a striking divergence: short sellers added aggressively in a single session even as the stock held steady and the lending market remains the loosest it has been all year.
The short interest story is the most notable development this week. DHT's SI % of free float jumped to 6.6% on June 9 — a 37% single-day increase, rising from roughly 7.8 million shares short to 10.7 million overnight. That move also represents a 37% gain on the week and 26% over the past month, making it the sharpest build since the series began in the current dataset. What makes it unusual is the speed: short interest had been drifting lower from mid-May peaks near 9.4 million shares before the sudden reversal. The ORTEX short score reflects the shift, jumping from 36.7 to 42.3 in two sessions — the highest reading in the 10-day history available, though still in moderate rather than extreme territory.
The lending market, however, tells a very different story. Despite the sharp rise in short positions, borrow availability is essentially unlimited — the availability ratio has been pegged at the system ceiling for most of the past two weeks, meaning there are vastly more shares available to borrow than are currently being borrowed. Cost to borrow has crept up 40% on the week to 0.43%, roughly doubling over the past month, but that is still firmly in "easy borrow" territory. There is no squeeze pressure here. The sudden short build looks like a directional bet, not a crowded, hard-to-cover position. Options positioning leans the same way — the put/call ratio has actually eased to 0.38, a touch below its 20-day average of 0.40, suggesting options traders are not particularly hedged relative to recent norms.
The Street sits cautiously constructive. The most recent significant analyst action came on April 22, when Evercore ISI's Jonathan Chappell downgraded DHT to In-Line and cut his target from $23 to $19. BTIG moved in the opposite direction the same day, lifting its Buy target from $18 to $23. The mean consensus target of around $20 implies roughly 20% upside from the current $16.72 close, though both actions are now past the 14-day freshness window. The factor picture adds nuance: DHT scores in the 85th percentile on earnings surprise and the 96th percentile on dividend score, two attributes that support the bull case of a well-managed, cash-generative tanker operator. The bear case centres on rate volatility and macro sensitivity — the stock is down 12% over the past month, which tracks with broader crude tanker softness as oil volume uncertainty has weighed on the sector. Valuation multiples are modest, with PE at 6.9x and EV/EBITDA at 5.9x, both drifting higher over the past week as the stock price has lagged earnings power.
Among close peers, FRO gained 4.6% on the week and INSW added 3.4%, both outpacing DHT's 1.6% weekly gain. TNK and NAT also posted modest positive weeks. DHT's relative underperformance against this peer group, combined with the sudden short build, may reflect specific positioning ahead of its August 7 earnings date rather than a broad sector call. Institutional positioning offers one counterpoint: BlackRock added 1.6 million shares in its most recent filing, Millennium built a near-fresh 3.7 million share position, and Arrowstreet added 1.8 million — a cluster of fresh institutional accumulation that sits on the other side of the short trade.
What to watch next is whether the June 9 short build proves a one-off positioning event or the start of a sustained rebuilding trend, particularly as the gap between institutional accumulation and short-side pressure widens into the August earnings print.
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