CDE heads into mid-September with shorts rebuilding at pace and insiders quietly cashing out — a combination that adds friction to what has otherwise been a solid fundamental year for the silver and gold miner.
The short interest angle is the week's most notable tension. Bears have added aggressively: short interest climbed 20% over the past five trading sessions to reach 8.5% of the free float, roughly 54.6 million shares. That reverses a gradual unwind that had run through most of August, when positions had compressed from a peak near 61 million shares in mid-August to around 44 million by month-end. The rebuild has been swift — five straight sessions of elevated short positioning after the Labour Day break. Despite that, the borrow market remains remarkably loose. Availability runs above 1,130%, meaning there are more than eleven shares available to borrow for every share already shorted. Borrow costs are equally unremarkable at 0.43%, easing around 9% on the week. This is not a crowded, squeezed short — it is a directional trade placed in highly liquid lending conditions. Options tell a similar story: the put/call ratio edged to 0.546, its highest level of the past year and just above its 20-day average of 0.52, adding mild defensive texture without signalling alarm.
The Street remains broadly constructive, though its conviction has softened slightly. Scotiabank trimmed its target to $26.50 from $28.50 in early August while holding its Sector Outperform rating — a modest reduction following the Q2 print. The broader analyst skew is bullish, with five buy ratings, three outperforms, and one hold. The consensus mean target of $28.15 implies roughly 41% upside to the current $19.91 close, a gap that stands notably wide. The CIBC initiation in March at a $40 target is an outlier that likely reflects a more bullish macro view on gold and silver; at current prices the mean target still suggests the Street sees meaningful room. The EV/EBITDA multiple has compressed slightly — down about 0.39 turns over the past month to 6.1x — while the P/E of 10.9x looks undemanding. The ORTEX short score has drifted higher this week to 38.8 from 35.8 ten days ago, but remains in the lower third of the universe, putting CDE in the less-shorted bucket historically despite the recent weekly build.
Insider activity has tilted unambiguously toward selling. Over the last 90 days, insiders net sold roughly 50,400 shares worth just over $1 million. The CFO, Thomas Whelan, sold 6,000 shares at $20.87 on August 19 in a discretionary trade — not under a 10b5-1 plan. A director, J. Kenneth Thompson, sold 25,000 shares the same day at $20.77, also outside any pre-arranged plan. A smaller EVP sale in early September was plan-driven and carries less signal. No open-market buying appears in the 90-day window beyond a token 635-share purchase by the EVP of Exploration in June at $16.95 — well below current levels. The insider flow does not corroborate a bullish conviction story at current prices.
On the institutional side, BlackRock added aggressively to reach 12.4% of shares outstanding as of August 31, up from its 11.7% disclosed position in July. State Street and Vanguard entities also added materially in their most recent reporting periods. Notably, Vanguard's 13G register shows the group's combined stake dropped to zero as of March 2026 — a departure from the 9.06% previously held — though the institutional data shows Vanguard entities still holding a combined 8.8% across two separate vehicles. The 13D/G register here should be treated with care: positions are as-last-disclosed around the 5% threshold, and holdings can change materially before a new filing is required.
CDE's peer group has had a rough week across the board. HL fell 8.7% and MUX dropped 8.4% on a five-day basis, while AG lost 9.3%. CDE's 3.6% weekly decline looks relatively restrained in that company. The next scheduled earnings event is November 4, and the most recent quarterly reactions — a roughly 3.5% one-day drop followed by a 16% five-day rally after the August 5 print — will make that date worth watching, particularly given the pace of short rebuilding between now and then.
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