RXRX Borrow Dries Up as Short Score Hits 82

Three signals converged on RXRX Tuesday. Availability has hit zero. Short interest sits at a multi-month high. And options traders are piling into calls, not puts. The signals point in different directions — and that tension is the story.

The Lending Pool Is Empty

Availability for Recursion Pharmaceuticals has collapsed to 0%. Two weeks ago it sat above 10%. There are now no shares left to borrow against existing short positions. Any short seller looking to add exposure today faces a locked lending market.

This is not a brief blip. Availability was already at 0% on June 15. It recovered briefly — touching 23% on June 18 — before falling back to zero over the past two sessions.

The cost to borrow tells a different story. At 0.99%, it has actually fallen 13% over the past week and nearly 20% over the past month. That combination — zero availability but cheap rates — suggests the existing borrowing pool was locked in at low rates before the squeeze, rather than a fresh demand spike driving costs up.

Short Interest at 35.8% of Float

SI jumped 11.2% in one week to 35.8% of free float. That is the highest reading in months. Over the past month, short interest has grown roughly 9%.

The ORTEX short score sits at 82.2. That ranks in the 2nd percentile for short score and 4th percentile for availability across all tracked names — extreme readings on both dimensions.

Days to cover stands at 8.36 based on the most recent official FINRA data. That is a meaningful covering burden if sentiment shifts.

Options Tell the Opposite Story

Against that bearish lending backdrop, the put-call ratio hit 0.1856 on June 30. That is a 2-sigma high relative to the 20-day mean of 0.177. A low PCR means call volume is running well ahead of put volume — unusual bullish positioning given the scale of short interest.

The stock gained 16% over the past week. It closed Monday at $3.67.

Next earnings are scheduled for August 5. Needham maintains a Buy with an $8 target. JP Morgan holds Overweight with a $10 target. Morgan Stanley sits at Equal-Weight with a $5.50 target. The mean analyst target is $6.64 — implying significant upside from current levels if the bulls are right.

Data Summary

• SI % of free float: 35.8% (+11.2% week-on-week)
• Availability: 0% (down from ~10% a week ago)
• Cost to borrow: 0.99% (−13% week-on-week)
• Put-call ratio: 0.1856 (2-sigma above 20-day mean)
• ORTEX short score: 82.2 (2nd percentile rank)
• 1-week price change: +16.1%
• Next earnings: August 5, 2026