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The lending market for EMAT has effectively seized up. Availability has collapsed to 2.4%, meaning only one share remains borrowable for every 42 already lent out, the tightest the borrow has been in months.
Cost to borrow stood at 76.6% as of 13 October, up 168% in a single week from roughly 28%. For context, the rate was hovering in the low 30s for most of September and early October before the sharp lurch higher on 13 October.
Availability has tracked the cost move almost tick for tick. It was still above 50% as recently as 2 October. A week later it had fallen to 12.8%. By 13 October it was at 2.4%, just above the 52-week low of 0.18%.
Short interest rose 8.1% in a single session to 3.06 million shares, and is up 377% over the past month. That is a rapid build in a short timeframe, and the dwindling supply of borrowable shares means each new short position is competing for a shrinking pool.
EMAT has fallen 25.8% in the past week and 53.7% over the past month. The stock closed at $1.43 on 13 October. Year-to-date the decline stands at roughly 70%, consistent with the prior ORTEX note on the company.
Peer names in diversified metals have also weakened, with Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR) off 21% in a week and Standard Lithium (SLI) down 18% over the same period. EMAT's move is still sharper than most of its correlated group.
The ORTEX short score sits at 65.4 as of 12 October, elevated and broadly stable over the past two weeks, signalling that bearish conviction in the lending data has not yet reversed.
Analyst coverage is thin. Two buy ratings from Litchfield Hills and Clear Street, both initiations, carry price targets of $12 and $30 respectively. Those targets now sit at multiples of the current price, and the coverage is stale.
The top three holders, William Wilcox (66.97%), Nicole Garcia (9.93%) and Andrew Knaggs (9.57%), collectively hold about 86% of shares. Garcia trimmed 1.7 million shares at the last reported date. At these concentration levels, the freely available float is structurally small, which amplifies any borrow-market dislocation. Earnings are next scheduled for 17 November.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open EMAT on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
