CBRS Borrow Stays Locked as Stock Extends Its Rally

Cerebras Systems heads into its August 12 print having added another 7% on Friday, with the borrow market remaining near-exhausted and the debate between bulls and bears as sharp as ever.

The lending picture has barely moved since our note five days ago — if anything, it has tightened further. Availability is running at just 1.9%, meaning for every 53 shares already lent out, only one remains available to borrow. That is effectively the same pinch reported earlier this week, and it reinforces the same message: anyone who wants to add short exposure faces a near-empty pool. Borrowing costs have climbed further, rising 63% over the past week to 2.7% — well off the late-June highs above 4%, but moving in the wrong direction for bears. Short shares outstanding have edged up another 1.5% day-on-day to roughly 13.1 million. The stock itself has surged 14% over the past week and 28% over the past month to close at $226.73, leaving shorts who held through the rally increasingly underwater.

The bull and bear cases are well-defined heading into the print. Bulls point to the strong Q1 results and positive cash flow that drove the initial leg of this rally, plus the company's push into cloud partnerships that could broaden its revenue base beyond its current concentrated customer base. The analyst consensus leans constructive: Mizuho raised its target to $310 last month, UBS lifted to $320 after Q1, and Morgan Stanley moved to $273 from $250 — all maintaining positive ratings. The mean target of $292 implies roughly 29% upside from current levels. Bears, however, focus on genuine structural risks: customer concentration, dependence on third-party data center supply, and the looming shadow of NVDA and emerging AI chip competitors. A Hold initiation from Freedom Capital Markets in late June at $209 — now well below the current price — reflects the view that the valuation has run ahead of near-term fundamentals. The P/E multiple is an eye-watering 1,091x on trailing earnings, though the company is clearly being valued on growth expectations rather than current profitability.

The one piece of historical context worth noting: the last earnings event on June 23 produced an 18.8% single-day drop, even though the five-day move recovered most of that ground, settling just 1.5% lower. That pattern — a sharp initial reaction that partially reverses — is the clearest data point on how volatile this stock can be around results. With the stock now 34% above those June 23 levels and borrow availability still near its floor, the August 12 print will test whether the revenue and margin trajectory can justify a valuation that has already priced in a great deal of the AI infrastructure growth story.