CleanSpark heads into the final quarter of 2026 with short sellers adding pressure and a borrow market that has tightened sharply in just one week, even as the analyst community remains firmly bullish on the stock's Bitcoin mining and data centre pivot.
Short interest is not just high, it is building. At 31.3% of free float, it has risen 4.2% over the past week and 8.5% over the past month, with shares short now running above 80 million. The direction has been consistently upward since mid-September, when short interest stepped higher from the 74 to 75 million range to its current level. What has changed more abruptly is the borrow market. Availability has tightened from roughly 39% of short interest to 27% over the course of the week, a drop of about 30%. A week ago there were nearly 40 shares available to borrow for every 100 already shorted. Now there are around 27. The 52-week low touched zero at some point, so the market is not at its tightest, but the direction of travel this week is clear. Cost to borrow remains low at under 0.60%, so the squeeze pressure is not showing up in the price of securing a short. The squeeze risk here is structural rather than acute: a very large short base with availability tightening, but borrow costs that have not yet followed.
Options traders are mildly more cautious than usual but not dramatically so. The put/call ratio ended the week at 0.49, just under one standard deviation above its 20-day average of 0.46. That is nowhere near the 52-week high of 0.61. One session mid-week, on September 28, saw the ratio jump to 0.55, but it pulled back by close on September 29. The ORTEX short score has nudged upward all week, reaching 71.5, placing the stock in the bottom 5th percentile for short score rank across the universe. That ranking reflects the combined weight of heavy short interest and tightening availability, not an options-driven signal.
The Street sits well above current levels. The consensus is buy across all ten analysts covering the stock, with a mean price target of $23.89 against a close of $13.31, implying roughly 79% upside. That gap deserves some context: the recent target lifts were driven by strong Q3 operational updates and the signing of hyperscaler lease agreements at Sandersville and Texas, which bulls argue de-risk the AI and high-performance compute pivot. B. Riley raised its target to $26 from $19 in early August, and KBW lifted to $25 from $16 in late July. The bull case centres on the company's ability to fund capex through project debt, covering more than 90% of required spend, limiting dilution. The ORTEX factor scores back the analyst momentum story: EPS surprise ranks in the 92nd percentile and analyst recommendation divergence (where current ratings sit versus the broader analyst universe) is in the 94th percentile. EPS momentum over 30 and 90 days ranks in the 97th and 94th percentiles respectively.
Bears have a credible counter. GAAP EBITDA came in deeply negative at minus $113 million in the most recent quarter, with the adjusted figure only turning positive after stripping out $132.8 million in non-cash unrealised Bitcoin losses. Gross margin compressed to 38% from 40% on a modest revenue increase to $138 million. The longer-term data centre buildout carries real execution risk: Sealy and Brazoria face ERCOT regulatory hurdles and a local permitting moratorium, with major capacity additions not expected until mid-2027 at the earliest. The 13,924 Bitcoin treasury provides balance sheet support, but 1,719 BTC is pledged as collateral. Valuation multiples are negative across the board as the company remains loss-making, making traditional price-to-earnings or price-to-book anchors meaningless here.
Institutional positioning shows a cluster of passive and quantitative holders. BlackRock held 16.5% as of August-end, adding roughly 590,000 shares in the period. D.E. Shaw built a 4.6% stake by July. The activist register carries no Schedule 13D filers, with all large holders filing as passive 13G holders. Insider activity on September 8 was entirely pre-planned: the CTO, CFO, Chief Development Officer and Chief Accounting Officer all had shares withheld for tax and made small open-market sales, all under 10b5-1 plans. Net insider activity over 90 days is a minor negative of roughly $394,000, which given the preponderance of compensation-related transactions carries limited signal. Wikipedia attention for CleanSpark, an indirect gauge of retail interest, ran more than two standard deviations below its own 90-day average as of end-August, suggesting retail engagement has cooled from earlier in the year.
Earnings history is worth watching here. The past three prints each produced next-day declines of roughly 9%. The five-day aftermath was worse, with one print producing a five-day fall of nearly 15%. The next event is flagged for December 1. With short interest at 31% of float, a building short position, and a stock down 12% on the week against a peer group that moved in near lock-step (MARA down 12%, RIOT down 14%, CORZ down 13%), the December print will draw attention to whether the hyperscaler lease revenues and project financing timelines arrive on schedule.
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