UAMY is down 21% on the week to $5.20, and the short base has barely flinched — a signal that the bears who rebuilt positions after the earnings collapse are not yet done.
The borrow market tells the loudest part of this story. Availability has been zero for the better part of two months. Every share in the lending pool is lent out. That condition has held almost without interruption since late June, and it hasn't stopped shorts from adding: short interest climbed 11% week-on-week to 23.7% of the free float, or roughly 33.1 million shares. The cost to borrow has actually eased slightly, down around 7% on the week to 1.57% — low enough in absolute terms that it isn't acting as a deterrent to new short positions. Against this backdrop, options traders remain stubbornly call-side. The put/call ratio dropped further to 0.21, now 1.3 standard deviations below its 20-day mean and approaching the 52-week low of 0.12. Despite a 25% earnings-day drop and a further 21% weekly decline, call buyers are not retreating.
The Street is not turning bearish either, but it is adjusting. HC Wainwright — the sole covering analyst — maintained its Buy rating after the earnings print while cutting the target from $11.75 to $9.25. With the stock now at $5.20, that still implies more than 75% upside to the analyst target, a gap wide enough to anchor the bull case. The case itself rests on antimony pricing: spot has moved from $5.96 per pound to $28.72 over the past year, and management has reaffirmed a $125 million revenue target for 2026. The bear case is harder to dismiss after last week's results — a $3.9 million net loss, significant share-based compensation, and geopolitical supply risks. Factor scores reinforce the concern: the ORTEX short score sits at 73.2, with short score rank and borrow tightness both in the bottom percentile of the universe.
Institutional inflows add an interesting layer. Van Eck Associates entered as a new holder as of July 31, adding 10.4 million shares — a 7% stake built from zero. State Street added 3.3 million shares in the same reporting period. Both BlackRock and State Street now hold just over 7.5% of shares each. That accumulation at higher prices creates a base of institutional holders whose average cost is well above current levels, which may limit aggressive sell-side pressure from that group even as the stock retreats.
Peers are broadly weak, which provides some sector cover for the move. TMC fell 14% on the week. NB dropped 15%. HYMC lost 12%. The critical minerals space is under pressure broadly, meaning UAMY's decline is not solely a company-specific reaction — though at 21% on the week, it is outpacing its correlates on the downside.
The key tension heading into next week is whether the zero-availability borrow market, combined with 23.7% short interest, begins to create friction as the stock approaches lower price levels — or whether shorts continue to press a name where the lending pool has not forced any covering in two months.
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