Alpha Tau Medical heads into the final days of July with a striking divergence: the borrow market has loosened sharply since last week's note, yet the CFO's sell programme shows no signs of stopping.
The most notable shift since Friday's article is in availability. After tightening to a low of 34% last Thursday — a level flagged as the tightest in weeks — availability has snapped back to 90% as of Tuesday. That is a dramatic reversal. The lending pool has refilled considerably, and at 90% there is now ample room for new short positions if sellers want to press the thesis. Cost to borrow has also eased, falling about 6% on the week to 8.5% — still elevated for a small-cap name, but down meaningfully from the peaks near 10% seen in late June and early July. Short interest itself edged lower on the day — down roughly 1% — though the weekly reading is still up 13%, and the 30-day build of 30% confirms a genuine accumulation trend. At 2.6% of the free float, the absolute level remains low, but the direction is clearly upward.
Options positioning is decidedly bullish, which contrasts with the building short book. The put/call ratio printed at 0.14 on Tuesday — well below its 20-day average of 0.18, and more than a standard deviation light on hedging demand. That skew has persisted all week, suggesting options traders are not particularly worried about downside despite the CFO selling. The 52-week PCR range tells its own story: the high is 6.75, the low zero, meaning the current reading sits very close to the most call-heavy extreme of the past year.
The CFO selling is the thread that ties the week's story together. Raphi Levy has now executed ten or more separate sell transactions since late June, collectively clearing north of $1.27 million in proceeds at prices ranging from $9.47 all the way up through $14. The stock closed Tuesday at $12.34, down 3% on the week but still up 25% over the past month. No insider has purchased a single share against this backdrop. That pattern of systematic, ladder-up selling by the most financially informed officer in the building deserves attention, even if the individual trade sizes are small relative to the company's capitalisation.
The Street remains broadly constructive. Barclays raised its target to $17 from $15 in early June after initiating coverage at Overweight, and HC Wainwright holds at Buy with a $15 target. Piper Sandler sits at Neutral with an $8 target — a meaningful outlier on the downside. The consensus mean of $14.20 sits above the current price, implying modest upside on paper. The bull case rests on Alpha DaRT's Phase 1/2 pooled data showing no treatment-related deaths, with pivotal pancreatic cancer trial readouts expected late 2026 or early 2027. The bear case is simpler: this is a pre-revenue clinical-stage company burning cash, and the pancreatic data timeline means investors are waiting the better part of another year for the next major proof point. Earnings are next due August 12.
The setup to watch into that print is whether borrow availability holds near current levels or reverts to the tighter regime seen last week — and whether any insider other than the CFO initiates activity in either direction ahead of the August report.
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