MetroCity Bankshares short interest surged 100% in one month to 2.0% of float. Cost to borrow fell 5% as utilization hit a 52-week high. Insiders sold $1.2M in shares last quarter.
MCBS closed at $31.50 on April 24, down 0.3% on the day. The stock fell 3.6% over the week. One-month returns show a 10.2% gain. The regional bank has retraced from recent highs but holds onto March gains.
Short interest climbed to 504,362 shares as of April 23. That represents 1.98% of the free float. The position doubled over the past month — a 100% increase from 252,526 shares on March 18. The week-over-week jump was 12.8%, adding 57,000 shares.
Short shares hit their highest level since tracking began in mid-March. The climb accelerated in early April. From March 20 to April 23, shorts added 268,000 shares. Days to cover sits at 3.75 based on official FINRA data from April 15.
Cost to borrow was 0.53% on April 23. That's down 13% from a week earlier when CTB spiked to 0.77%. The 30-day picture shows more volatility. CTB peaked at 1.71% on April 3, then collapsed. The current 0.53% is 5% below the month-ago reading.
Utilization reached 6.95% on April 23. That's just off the 52-week high of 7.16% touched on April 21. A month ago, utilization was 2.25%. The metric has tripled as short interest climbed and borrow availability tightened. The April 21 peak marked the highest utilization on record for this stock.
The put-call ratio stood at 0.03 on April 24. That's the lowest PCR in the past 52 weeks. The 20-day average PCR is 1.96 with a standard deviation of 1.24. The current reading sits 1.56 standard deviations below the mean.
Call buying dominated. The 52-week PCR high was 32.75. Options sentiment flipped sharply bullish in late April after spending most of the month with elevated put activity.
The mean price target is $33.00 as of April 8. No consensus rating or buy/hold/sell breakdown is available.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Kelly Motta raised the target to $33 from $32 on April 9. The firm maintained a Market Perform rating. Motta had previously lifted the target to $32 from $31 on March 23, also keeping the Market Perform stance. Both moves followed earlier adjustments — a cut to $31 from $33 in October 2025, then a series of raises through 2024.
The target implies 4.8% upside from current levels.
Valuation multiples carry stale data from October 2022. The P/E ratio was 8.34 and price-to-book was 1.40 at that time. No recent updates are available.
Factor scores show a 78th percentile rank for sector positioning. Short score ranks at the 27th percentile. Days to cover sits at the 18th percentile, and utilization ranks at the 22nd percentile. EPS surprise ranks at the 40th percentile. Analyst recommendation differential is at the 51st percentile. Dividend score is at the 55th percentile.
BlackRock held 1,414,020 shares as of March 31, representing 4.9% of shares outstanding. The passive giant added 11,539 shares last quarter. Vanguard owned 1,085,977 shares (3.8%), up 35,322 shares. State Street held 445,316 shares (1.5%), adding 5,543.
American Century Investment Management increased its stake by 74,593 shares to 543,594 (1.9%). Dimensional Fund Advisors added 16,409 shares to reach 477,079 (1.7%). Geode Capital added a modest 233 shares to 448,771.
Founder and President Nack Paek holds 1,393,438 shares (4.8%). President Farid Tan owns 974,126 shares (3.4%). Don T. Leung holds 816,595 shares (2.8%). All founder stakes were unchanged in the most recent filings from mid-2025.
Insiders sold $1.2M net over the 90-day period ending November 2024. The dataset is 516 days old — well beyond the freshness threshold.
President Farid Tan sold 29,000 shares across multiple transactions in November 2024 for $986,334. The sales ranged from $33.33 to $35.64 per share. Independent Director Ajit Patel sold 5,000 shares at $33.10 for $165,500 on November 7. Director Sam Shim sold 56,310 shares in August 2024 for $1.57M at prices near $28.
No insider purchases appear in the recent trade log.
Peer data was not included in the snapshot.
The company reported earnings on April 24 at 8:00 PM. An earlier event was scheduled for April 17. Prior earnings prints occurred on February 5 and January 30. No price-reaction data is available for these events.
Earnings were announced April 24. The stock's reaction will clarify whether the short interest buildup and insider selling reflected fundamental concerns or positioning ahead of results.
The April 21 utilization peak coincided with the week's short interest surge. Watch whether utilization holds near 7% or eases if new shares become available to borrow.
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