Kartoon Studios Pins 52-Week Utilisation High

Shares in TOON closed at $0.70 on April 24, up 15.8% over the past month. Utilisation has locked at 100% for the past week, matching the 52-week high, while short interest climbed 7.1% over seven days to 1.84% of the float. Cost to borrow remains elevated near 0.81% despite easing from early-month peaks.

Price action & positioning

Kartoon Studios closed at $0.695 on April 24. The stock fell 1.1% on the day but posted a weekly gain of 1.8%. Over the trailing month shares surged 15.8%, recovering from lows near $0.60 in late March. The movies and entertainment micro-cap has no current market cap data available.

Short interest & lending

Short interest stood at 989,207 shares on April 23, representing 1.84% of the free float. The count rose 1.3% day-over-day and climbed 7.1% across the past week. Over the trailing month short interest declined 3.4%. The most recent FINRA settlement figure reported 925,271 shares short as of April 15, implying 6.89 days to cover at recent volume.

Cost to borrow averaged 0.81% on April 23. The rate fell 3.7% over the past week and dropped 14.9% in the trailing month. CTB peaked at 1.05% on April 1 before retreating to current levels. The April 9 low of 0.39% marked the recent floor.

Utilisation locked at 100% on April 23. The metric has remained at the 52-week high since April 15, following a brief dip to the mid-70s range on April 10–13. Before that, utilisation held at 100% throughout late March.

Options flow

The put-call ratio measured 0.0018 on April 24. The 20-day mean sits at 0.0013 with a standard deviation of 0.00023. The current PCR translates to a z-score of 2.27, indicating elevated put activity relative to the recent baseline. The 52-week range spans 0.0003 to 0.0067. Over the trailing 30 days the PCR oscillated within a tight band between 0.0011 and 0.0020.

Valuation & factor positioning

Enterprise value stood at $43.6 million as of the most recent December 31 filing, though the data is now 115 days old. The company reports no other recent multiple data.

Factor scores place TOON at the 20th percentile for short score rank and sector score. Utilisation rank sits at the 1st percentile, consistent with the 100% reading. Days-to-cover rank also occupies the 1st percentile. The dividend score registers at the 33rd percentile. Momentum, quality, and value machine-learning scores are unavailable.

Institutional positioning

Anson Group holds 5.2 million shares, or 9.2% of shares outstanding, as of December 31. The position increased by 3.42 million shares in the most recent filing. Founder and CEO Andrew Heyward held 2.0 million shares, or 3.5%, as of December 3, down 41,176 shares from the prior report.

Vanguard added 132,285 shares to bring its stake to 2.0 million, or 3.5%, as of March 31. Nomura initiated a 1.85 million share position worth 3.3% of the company during Q4 2025. SG Americas Securities established a 1.05 million share stake in the March quarter.

Citadel boosted its holding by 272,737 shares to 289,617. Caption Management added 104,216 shares to reach 304,216. Geode Capital increased by 47,456 shares to 472,839. Susquehanna initiated a 117,403 share position in Q4.

Insider activity

Over the trailing 90 days insiders purchased a net 25,227 shares worth $20,681. The most recent activity dates from June 13, 2025, when a director bought 6,200 shares at $0.80 for $4,990. On May 29 the CFO acquired 6,100 shares at $0.83 for $5,033. Founder and CEO Andrew Heyward purchased 5,927 shares at $0.83 for $4,918 on the same date. COO Michael Jaffa bought 7,000 shares at $0.82 for $5,740 on May 28.

Director Anthony Thomopoulos acquired shares in three separate transactions during mid-2024, ranging from $0.85 to $1.03 per share. Heyward received a 149,509-share award with zero purchase price on May 29, 2025. The COO received a 16,667-share award and Heyward a 93,750-share award in December 2023.

The insider data carries a staleness flag at 316 days old.

What to watch

Kartoon Studios has scheduled its next earnings event for May 15 at 1:30 PM ET. The company reported results on April 7, March 31, November 21, and November 14 in the trailing year. No historical price-reaction data is available for those events.

Utilisation remains locked at the 52-week high with no shares available to borrow. A sustained increase in short interest alongside full utilisation suggests limited capacity for further short-side positioning unless lenders add inventory. The upcoming earnings release will test whether the recent price recovery can hold.