Short Report: AST SpaceMobile bears return after violent squeeze

Welcome to this week’s installment of “The Short Interest Report” – The Fly’s weekly recap of short interest trends among some of the most widely followed high-short-float stocks. Using the data from our partner Ortex.com, which utilizes the latest information from stock lenders to estimate short interest changes for thousands of publicly traded companies, this report will screen for some of biggest changes in short interest as a percentage of free float and days-to-cover ratios while also considering the short interest data on some of the more volatile and heavier-traded names of the week. Based on the availability of data from Ortex, the report tracks the trading period that covers prior Friday through Thursday of this week, excluding holidays. As a basis of comparison for stocks discussed below, the S&P 500 index was up 1.2%, the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.8%, the Russell 2000 index was down 0.7%, the Russell 2000 Growth ETF (IWO) was flat, and the Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN) was down 1.4% in the five-day trading session range through October 30.

SHORT INTEREST GAINERS

• Ortex-reported short interest on AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) had hit multi-year lows around 16% in the prior week as the stock had doubled over a span of the first two weeks of October following the company’s constructive BlueBird 6 update and its direct-to-cellular contract with Verizon. As multiple sell-side firms questioned the stock’s valuation however and as the stock price corrected, bearish appetite has also resurfaced. This week, shorts as a percentage of free float on AST SpaceMobile jumped from 16.3% to a four-week-high of 19.8% and days-to-cover nudged to 3.0 to 3.1. The stock was still up about 7%, though its October tally was still a hefty 35% and year-to-date, shares are up an impressive 280%.
• Ortex-reported short interest on Celcuity (CELC) slipped to six-week lows around 25% three weeks ago, though a 40% spike in the stock price on October 20 in the wake of Phase 3 clinical data release also brought in some bears looking to fade the move. This week, shorts as a percentage of free float rose from 24.7% to 32.0% – within a percentage point from two-year highs – while days-to-cover rose from 2.7 to 5.2, a three-month high. Shares of Celcuity ended the week through Thursday up about 12%, and while the stock fell over 2% on Friday, year-to-date, it is still up nearly 500%.
• Ortex-reported short interest on TeraWulf (WULF) had fallen to six-week lows of about 33% late last week as bearish expression tracked the corrective price action, but with risk-appetite flows in data center infrastructure restored amid consistently constructive capex cycle updates by hyperscalers, TeraWulf shares bounced and bearish positioning flows followed. This week, shorts as a percentage of free float on the stock rose from 33.4% to 38.8%, days-to-cover increased from 2.1 to 2.3, while the stock gained 24%, with another 5% added on Friday. Year-to-date, TeraWulf shares are now up 174%.
• Ortex-reported short interest in Kohl’s (KSS) had troughed at this year’s lows of around 24% in the final week of September, a culmination of a near-tripling in the stock price from the lows seen in April, but with shares turning toward a more sideways trading range over the past two months, bears are more emboldened. This week, shorts as a percentage of free float on the stock rose from 28.1% to 31.1% – the highest levels since mid-August. Meanwhile, days-to-cover on the name jumped from 4.5 to 5.5 as the drying of bullish momentum has pressured volumes. The stock was down a slight 2% in the five-day period covered, and Friday’s 3% increase erased that decline, though year-to-date, the stock of the retail chain remains resilient given the expectations of its secular market share loss with a up 16% run-up.

SHORT INTEREST DECLINERS

• Ortex-reported short interest in Mobileye Global (MBLY) started the month of October at a two-year-high of 29%, though with shares moving to their lowest levels since the tariff-tantrum that hit the auto space especially hard in early April, bears are also keen to take profits – particularly in light of just how well automakers have performed this earnings season. This week, shorts as a percentage of free float on Mobileye fell from 28.6% to as low as 11.6% before ending the five-day period covered through Thursday at 21.3%. The stock was down 8.8% in that span and has now lost about 10% since reporting merely in-line Q3 results late last week. Year-to-date, Mobileye shares are trading off by 34%.