Smith Micro's short position has surged 260% in a month to 1.13% of float. Cost to borrow jumped 43% weekly to 2.4%. Founder continues selling into the rally. Earnings land Tuesday.
SMSI closed at $0.79 on April 24, up 5.6% on the day. The stock gained 10.9% over the past week but remains down 6.6% for the month. The application-software developer sits near the upper end of its recent trading range.
Short interest stands at 288,947 shares, or 1.13% of the free float. That position has climbed 27.6% over the past week. Over the past month, short shares tripled, up 260% from 80,000 shares in early April. The surge peaked on March 20 at 236,819 shares, then pulled back sharply to 60,387 shares by April 9 before climbing again through late April.
Cost to borrow hit 2.40% on April 23, the highest reading since late March. CTB jumped 43% over the past week from 1.38% and sits 32% above the month-ago level of 1.82%. The recent spike to 2.40% matches the early-March high of 2.69%.
Utilisation reached 31.5% on April 23, up from 17% a week prior. The current reading is well below the 52-week high of 100%. Utilisation peaked at 59% on March 16, then fell to 16% by April 21 before rebounding this week.
The put/call ratio sits at 0.069, below the 20-day mean of 0.099. The z-score of -1.37 indicates the current PCR is more than one standard deviation below the recent average. Over the past month, PCR ranged from a 52-week high of 0.58 to a low of 0.037. The current reading suggests lighter put demand relative to calls.
Two analysts rate the stock a buy with a mean price target of $2.50. Benchmark's Matthew Harrigan reiterated a buy rating with a $5 target in November 2024. Analyst data is stale by 51 days.
The company trades at negative P/E and EV/EBITDA multiples due to trailing losses. P/E improved to -2.54 from -9.28 over the past month. EV/EBITDA moved to -2.10 from -11.0 over 30 days. The enterprise value stood at $14.8 million as of December 31.
Smith Micro ranks in the 92nd percentile for EPS surprise, the 80th percentile for sector score, and the 50th percentile for analyst recommendation differential. Short score ranks at the 35th percentile. Utilisation ranks at the 30th percentile. Dividend score sits at the 32nd percentile.
Founder and CEO William Smith holds 5.81 million shares, or 22.6% of the company. He trimmed his position by 70,641 shares as of March 13. CFO Timothy Huffmyer owns 184,567 shares (0.72%) and reduced by 41,339 shares over the same period.
Vanguard added 137,382 shares to reach 261,187 shares (1.01%) as of March 31. UBS Asset Management increased its stake by 229,013 shares to 233,836 shares (0.91%) at year-end. Citadel added 125,074 shares to 202,877 shares (0.79%). Renaissance Technologies lifted its position by 32,604 shares to 110,745 shares (0.43%).
Pacific Ridge Capital Partners trimmed by 38,939 shares to 503,528 shares (1.95%).
Insiders sold 78,361 shares over the past 90 days for net proceeds of $42,985. CEO William Smith sold 4,943 shares on March 13 at $0.85 for $4,182. He also sold 43,366 shares on February 27 at $0.52 for $22,680, and 36,597 shares on December 11 at $0.58 for $21,274.
CFO Timothy Huffmyer sold 1,788 shares on March 13 at $0.85 for $1,513. He sold 27,010 shares on February 27 at $0.51 for $13,829, and 19,143 shares on November 12 at $0.68 for $13,103. All recent transactions were sales.
Smith Micro reports earnings on Tuesday, April 29. The company has no recent earnings-reaction history in the snapshot.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open SMSI on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
