Why this matters — Three distinct ORTEX data signals have converged on PAPL (Pineapple Financial Inc.) within 48 hours. Short interest, cost to borrow, and utilisation have all moved to extreme levels simultaneously — a rare alignment in a micro-cap mortgage finance stock.
Short Interest — from negligible to 114% of float in days. Short interest stood at just ~42,000 shares on April 22. By April 24 it had reached 1.53 million shares. That is a rise of 3,452% in one week. SI as a percentage of free float now sits at 113.8% — meaning estimated short positions exceed the entire free float.
Cost to Borrow — spiking to extreme levels. CTB hit 319% APR on April 23, up 304% week-on-week. As of April 24 it remains elevated at 269%. Prior to April 22, CTB had been trending between 42% and 122%. The spike is sharp and sustained.
Utilisation — 52-week high reached overnight. Utilisation was 12.69% on April 22. It jumped to 95.29% the following day — a 52-week high. As of April 24 it remains at 87.35%. ORTEX ranks PAPL's utilisation in the of all stocks, meaning almost no inventory remains available to borrow.
PAPL's ORTEX short score stands at 67.5 (as of April 23), up sharply from 41.8 a week earlier. The combined ORTEX score is 80.7. The stock has gained 55% over the past week and 28% over the past month. The price closed at $0.92 on April 24. The factor score places PAPL in the 6th percentile on short score rank — flagging extreme short-side pressure. Insider data is stale (last trade July 2025) and carries no weight here.
Prior to this episode, PAPL short interest had been in gradual decline — falling 88% in the month to April 22. The sudden reversal and overshoot past 100% of float is consistent with a rapid re-positioning event in a low-liquidity micro-cap, where small absolute share counts can produce outsized percentage moves.
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