EQPT is in its second consecutive week of near-zero availability. The lending market has not recovered. And options traders just made their most bullish move in a year.
Six days ago, availability collapsed to 1.4%. It briefly ticked up to 4%, then fell back. As of June 26, availability sits at 2.7% — only one share available for roughly every 37 already borrowed. The borrow market is effectively frozen.
That pressure is now showing up in cost to borrow. CTB hit 4.37% on June 26 — up 141% week-on-week and the highest level in over a month. In mid-May, CTB briefly spiked above 5% before collapsing back toward 1.5–1.8%. It has now retraced nearly all of that decline in just five sessions.
The direction is clear. The June 24 article noted CTB near 1.5% with availability at rock bottom. Both have moved sharply since: availability stayed tight, CTB followed. That is the lending market repricing scarce borrow supply into a higher fee for short sellers.
Short interest has risen roughly 18% over the past month to approximately 16.1 million shares. The trend is up.
Against that short-side pressure, options positioning has shifted dramatically. The put/call ratio dropped to 0.34 on June 29. That is the lowest reading in a year. The 20-day average PCR was 0.58. The current reading sits 2.4 standard deviations below that mean — a statistically extreme swing toward calls.
The PCR was above 2.0 just six weeks ago. It has since collapsed in near-continuous fashion. Whatever drove that options shift, it represents a very different view of EQPT's direction from the one embedded in the borrow market.
The founders bought in mid-June. The CEO and President each made open-market purchases on June 15, totalling roughly $1.6 million combined. A director purchased $499K in May. Net insider buying over 90 days stands at approximately $2.87 million. That buying happened into the same dip that appears to have triggered the borrow squeeze.
On the analyst side, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on June 29 with a Neutral rating and a $22 target — effectively in line with the current price of $20.48. Citizens holds a Market Outperform at $42. Truist has a Buy at $41. The spread between the lowest and highest targets is large. The ORTEX short score sits at 76.9, elevated and broadly stable over the past two weeks.
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