NCNO vs peers AI infrastructure is a crowding comparison, and nCino is the rare row where a crowded short and a clean book show up together: 18.1% of float short in the November 4 scan, 15 analysts with 6 strong buys and not one sell, and a print on December 2, 2026, 28 days out.

The score is 69 at rank 47 of the 82 rows we carry, and the crowding is not what dragged it down. The coverage did: only 15 analysts cover NCNO, which is 15 of the 25 points that column can award.

The options market is not treating NCNO as a dangerous name. The three-day implied move is 5.8%, the band runs from $22.03 to $24.74 around the $23.39 scan price, and implied volatility is 52.5.

So the comparison is an unusual one: a fifth of the float short, the cleanest book in the crowded group, a stock that closed at $23.44 on November 4 at the high of its month, and the narrowest implied move of any crowded row with a clean book.

The row, 28 days out

Score 69, rank 47, sector Technology, print date December 2, earnings sentiment Positive, short interest 18.1% of float, market capitalization $2.47 billion, implied volatility 52.5, and a scan price of $23.39.

Decomposed, the 69 is 15 points for analyst coverage, 18.3 points for a 73.3% buy-side share, 12 points for six strong buys, 8.2 points for an 8.2% five-day implied move, and the full 15 for a Positive sentiment reading.

Two of those five columns are where the points are missing, and neither one is the book. Coverage is 10 points short of its maximum because 15 analysts is a small number of them. The implied-move column gives up 6.8 points because 8.2% over five days is narrow.

Everything else is working: six strong buys is 12 points, a 73.3% buy-side share is 18.3 of 25, and the sentiment column is maxed out at 15.

Is NCNO a better AI stock to buy than its peers?

On the three columns this table measures, coverage, conviction and implied move, NCNO sits mid-group in the crowded cluster and low on the board. What it has that the names beside it do not is a book and a rally.

The cleanest comparison is BILI, which is also crowded at 8.0%, also carries 6 strong buys and not one sell, and also prices a narrow move. BILI scores 86 and trades at $13.90 with a $14.54 target. NCNO scores 69 at $23.39 with a $24.27 target.

On the crowding side the answer is no. PATH is 25.0% short with a score of 56 and 2 buys out of 20 analysts, and ASAN is 21.0% short with a score of 54 and 2 sell ratings. NCNO is more crowded than either of them and has a far better book.

On the momentum side the answer is yes, and it is the only one that matters here. NCNO closed at $23.44 on November 4, the highest close of the past month, up 21.58% over the month and 3.63% on the day, while the crowded short has been paying.

So the honest verdict is this. nCino is a better crowded-short setup than the other crowded names, and a weaker all-round row than the name with the same shape. What makes it worth a page is that the options market has not paid for any of it.

The crowding table

Short interest across the board does not sort the way the score does, and that is worth seeing. RUN carries 35.6% of float short and scores 69, with 8 buys and 3 strong buys against it.

VNET is at 30.1% with a score of 63. PATH is at 25.0% with a score of 56 and 2 buys out of 20 analysts. LYFT is at 21.7% with a score of 71, and ASAN at 21.0% with a score of 54.

NCNO sits tenth on that list at 18.1%, just under WIX at 18.2%, below BILL at 18.9% and EPAM at 17.6%. Twenty-six of the 82 rows we carry carry at least 8% of float short, and NCNO is one of them.

How does NCNO's implied move compare with the rest of the board?

It is among the narrowest three-day moves of any crowded row, and that is the surprising part of this setup.

NCNO's 5.8% three-day implied move and 52.5 implied volatility sit far below RUN at 28.6% and 258.7, SEDG at 30.4% and 275.0, RIOT at 34.8% and 314.6, INOD at 32.4% and 293.7, and LYFT at 20.8% and 187.9.

They sit below ASAN's 9.7%, PATH's 10.6%, GTLB's 10.7%, DOCU's 9.0% and BILI's 6.9%. Only IQ, at 4.2% on 14.3% short, is narrower.

That is the tension worth naming. If 18.1% of the float were going to be squeezed, the options market would normally price more than a 5.8% three-day move into a print. It is not.

Two readings are possible and the data does not settle between them. Either the crowd is wrong and the options are too cheap, or the options are right and the rally that has lifted the stock 21.58% over the month is the squeeze, spent in advance of the print. The difference is December 2.

What would have to change for NCNO to be a buy before the print?

The coverage column first, because it is holding 10 points back and it is the only one of the five that does not depend on the quarter.

Twenty-five analysts would take that column from 15 to 25 points and the score from 69 to 79, on nothing but time and a couple of new names covering the stock. That is the cheapest score improvement on this row.

Second the price, because the levels are named. NCNO was at $23.39 in the November 4 scan, the analyst target is $24.27 with 3.8% of room above it, and the downside mark on the row is $22.50, which is 3.8% below the scan price.

Third the implied move itself. A 5.8% three-day move into a print on a stock that has already run 21.58% in a month is the cheapest event premium in the crowded group. If the crowd is right, that is where the gap shows up.

Our own scan ran at 6:30 Pacific time and every figure on this page comes from it, published in full at our open data.

So NCNO vs peers AI infrastructure lands where the numbers land. nCino is the tenth most crowded row on the board with the cleanest book in that crowd, and the options market is charging 5.8% for a print that a fifth of the float is short against. Our target is $24.27 and our downside mark is $22.50. The reader decides whether a rally of 21.58% is the crowd leaving or the crowd arriving late.

Frequently asked questions about NCNO

What makes nCino different from the other crowded software names?

NCNO carries 18.1% of float short, the tenth most crowded row we track, but also 6 strong buys, 5 buys, 4 holds and not a single sell rating. PATH at 25.0% short has 2 buys out of 20 analysts.

When does nCino report earnings in 2026?

nCino reports on December 2, 2026, which is 28 days after our November 4 scan. SNOW, CRM and PATH print the same day, so NCNO is read against a score of 97 and a score of 85.

How crowded is NCNO and what does the options market charge for the print?

18.1% of float is short and 5.8% is the three-day implied move, with 8.2% over five days on 52.5 implied volatility. That band runs from $22.03 to $24.74 around our $23.39 scan price.