QUBT shares have fallen 8.9% over the past month. The lending market tells a starker story.
Availability in the QUBT borrow pool has dropped to 0% — every share in the lending pool is currently lent out. That is the tightest the market has been in over six weeks of data, and it has persisted for most of the past fortnight. Short sellers who want to add exposure face a near-impossible task finding shares to borrow.
The cost to borrow reflects that scarcity directly. It stood at 1.78% on June 1. It is now 13.59%. That is a 309% increase over 30 days.
The steepest move came in the past week alone — cost to borrow jumped 86%. On July 7 it was 8.64%. Three days later it was 13.59%. Borrowing QUBT shares now costs more than ten times what it did six weeks ago.
The demand driving that cost is not subtle. Short interest in QUBT stands at 29.5% of free float — up 10.2% in a single week and up 9.1% over the past month.
That is a high absolute level for any stock. ORTEX's short score has climbed steadily in tandem, reaching 74.97 as of July 10, up from 72.65 ten days earlier. The factor score for short-score rank sits at the 1st percentile — meaning QUBT is among the most heavily shorted names in the entire universe covered.
Official FINRA data, settled through June 30, reported 63.4 million shares short with 3.78 days to cover. The ORTEX daily estimate now puts the short share count at 66 million — still building.
Against this backdrop, analyst sentiment has not shifted bearish. Rosenblatt's John McPeake reiterated his Buy rating and $22 target as recently as June 29. Ascendiant Capital raised its target to $30 from $27 on June 15. The mean analyst price target sits at $18.33 — more than double the current share price of $8.66.
The divergence between that analyst consensus and the lending market signals a genuine debate on the stock. Earnings are next scheduled for August 14.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open QUBT on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
