NCRA Short Interest Plunges 50% in a Week

Nocera slipped 2.3% over the past week to 21 cents, but the real story unfolded in the lending market — short interest collapsed by half and cost to borrow fell from 88% to 47%. Utilisation remains elevated at 76%, though down from the 90% peak hit ten days ago.

Price action & positioning

NCRA closed at $0.21 on April 24, up 3.6% on the day but down 2.3% for the week. The stock is off 2.6% over the past month. Trading in the micro-cap construction-engineering name remains thin.

Short interest & lending

Short interest stood at 200,090 shares (1.4% of float) as of April 23. That represents a 50% decline from a week earlier, when the estimate peaked near 318,000 shares. The April 17 level was the highest in the past 30 days.

A fortnightly FINRA report on April 15 showed 410,452 shares short. Days to cover sits at 1.0.

Cost to borrow fell to 47% from 54% a week ago. The April 15 reading of 191% was the highest in the past month. Borrowing costs have since retraced sharply as short sellers covered.

Utilisation measured 76% on April 23, up from 68% a week prior but down from the 90% peak on April 13. That April 13 print marked the 52-week high. Lendable supply remains moderately tight, though conditions have eased from two weeks ago.

Valuation & factor positioning

Enterprise value stood at $14.1 million as of December 31. The reading is stale by 115 days.

NCRA scores in the 6th percentile for utilisation rank and short score rank — both measure extreme positioning in the tails. Dividend score sits at the 24th percentile. Sector score reaches the 70th percentile. Days to cover ranks at the 62nd percentile.

Institutional positioning

Song-Yuan Teng added 600,000 shares in a filing dated April 13, lifting the stake to 3.5% of shares outstanding. Ching-An Jin added 300,000 shares, now holding 3.2%. Sean Filson, Feng-Hua Chen, Yiwen Zhang, and Hui-Ying Zhuang each initiated 100,000-share positions in the same round of filings.

Estate of Yin-Chieh Cheng remains the largest holder at 4.6 million shares (26.9%), unchanged from October 31. Han-Chieh Shih holds 1.3 million shares (7.4%), also flat. Shun-Chih Chuang trimmed by 175,000 shares in December to 220,001 (1.3%).

Vanguard holds 89,662 shares (0.5%), unchanged as of March 31. Geode Capital holds 61,305 shares (0.4%), flat as of February 27. Renaissance Technologies cut its stake by 19,800 shares in Q4 to 15,500 (0.09%).

Insider activity

The most recent insider trades are stale by 1,053 days. Over a 90-day window ending June 7, 2023, insiders net purchased 88,000 shares worth $113,170. The Chairman, President, and CEO bought 23,000 shares at $1.59 on June 7, 2023, and 20,000 shares at $1.58 on June 6, 2023. Yin-Chieh Cheng bought 45,000 shares at $1.00 on March 10, 2023.

No recent activity is available.

What to watch

Nocera is scheduled to report earnings after hours on May 5. The last earnings event occurred on April 15.