BSBK Reports Q1 as Shorts Cover

Bogota Financial Corp. filed its Q1 2026 earnings on May 6, with the news landing into a week that saw short sellers rapidly exit their positions.

The earnings print was modest but positive. Q1 EPS came in at $0.06, flat year-over-year, while revenue rose to $4.75 million from $4.48 million in the same period a year ago. That small top-line gain represents the clearest fundamental story at play this week — a tightly held community bank delivering incremental, unremarkable progress. The stock ticked up 2.3% on May 5, recovering some of the 4% lost over the prior month, and closed near $8.40.

The most notable movement this week was in short positioning, though the absolute level is far too small to drive a squeeze narrative. Short interest fell 27.8% across the week to just 12,380 shares — equivalent to roughly 0.1% of the free float. That rapid covering follows a period of unusual accumulation: short positions had roughly doubled during April, peaking near 17,700 shares around April 23 before retreating sharply. Even at the April peak, the position was trivially small. The borrow market reflects this ease — availability is extremely loose, cost to borrow runs at just 1.28%, and borrow availability is well above any level that would imply lending stress. The ORTEX short score eased to 29.9 from 33.2 a week ago, tracking the decline in short shares.

Ownership tells the real structural story for this name. Bogota Financial MHC, the mutual holding company, controls 67.7% of shares outstanding, leaving a very thin public float. The next-largest declared holder, M3F, holds just under 4%. Vanguard and BlackRock have small passive positions, and both added modestly in recent filings. The ownership structure limits trading liquidity and explains why even a few thousand shares of short interest can register as a meaningful percentage change.

The most consistent voice of conviction in the stock has been independent director John Masterson, who accumulated shares across multiple sessions in December at prices between $8.21 and $8.40 — very close to where the stock trades today. Those purchases followed earlier buys at lower prices in mid-2025. No analyst coverage is current; the only on-record initiation dates to 2021, when Piper Sandler set a Neutral rating with an $11.00 target. That figure is too stale to rely on as a price anchor.

The Q1 results are now public, and the annual meeting is scheduled for May 14 — the next near-term date on the calendar for this thinly traded community bank.