CRON closed the week at CAD 3.92, up 2.9% over five days, but the more interesting move was happening in the lending market — where the cost to borrow the stock has nearly doubled in a month against a backdrop of negligible short interest.
The borrow cost story is the standout this week. Cost to borrow has climbed to 3.2%, up 30% on the week and 70% over the past month — a meaningful acceleration from the roughly 1% annualised rate that prevailed through most of June. That said, the lending market remains extremely loose: availability runs at more than 2,100% of short interest, meaning there are well over 20 shares available to borrow for every one currently shorted. Availability has tightened modestly — down about 19% on the week from the 2,600–3,600% range it occupied through most of June — but it is nowhere near stressed. Short interest itself is minimal at 0.72% of free float, down roughly 10% on the month, and the ORTEX short score of 31 places the stock comfortably in the lower half of the short-pressure universe. The rising cost to borrow is therefore a curiosity rather than a signal of building bear conviction.
What makes CRON genuinely interesting is what short data is not doing — and what the structural picture is. Altria Group holds 41.9% of shares outstanding and has not moved its position. That anchor shapes everything: it limits float, it creates a natural floor on sentiment, and it is a key reason availability looks so abundant relative to the tiny short position. The ORTEX stock score sits around 87, well ahead of cannabis peers — scores 59, while , , and all trail below 65. The score's strength is driven by value (price-to-book near 1.5 on current data, EV/EBITDA around 6.3x) and momentum, which ranks CRON clearly above its peer group on both dimensions. The short score ranks in the 78th percentile of the broader universe, meaning fewer stocks have a more benign short setup.
The peer picture is uniformly weak this week. ACB fell 3.2% on the week and dropped 4.1% on Tuesday alone. SNDL lost 5.6%. TLRY slipped 2.6%. CRON's 2.9% weekly gain therefore represents a meaningful divergence from sector direction, not simply a rising tide lifting cannabis names. The sector continues to face the oversupply and margin compression pressures flagged in recent notes, and CRON's relative resilience appears tied less to any operational catalyst and more to its balance sheet quality, the Altria anchor, and its thinner short base.
Analyst coverage data on CRON is too dated to cite — the most recent consensus is from early 2021, over five years old. Insider activity in May was routine: a cluster of small equity award grants accompanied by modest tax-withholding sales, all at significance scores of 1, generating a net 90-day position of around 238,000 shares. Nothing points to a conviction signal from inside the company.
The next scheduled earnings event is August 10. The two most recent prints produced a 1.3% and a 9.2% next-day move respectively, suggesting the range of outcomes around results is wide. Between now and then, the question worth tracking is whether the rising cost to borrow reflects anything developing in the borrow market, or simply a seasonal artefact — and whether CRON's divergence from its peer group holds as sector sentiment stays under pressure.
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