Short sellers piled into MNTS this week at a historic pace. Shares short jumped 426% in seven days to 1.61 million — and the lending pool is almost empty.
Availability has collapsed to near zero. With utilization at 98.66% — just below the 52-week peak of 100% — almost every share in the lending pool is already lent out. There is barely one share available for every 50 already borrowed.
Short interest now stands at 6.68% of free float, up from roughly 1.25% just a week ago. The one-month change is even sharper: up 563% since late March.
Cost to borrow sits at 39.3% APR. That is elevated, but it has eased from its intraday peaks. CTB hit 93% on April 17 and 84% on April 15. The recent softening suggests shorts established positions during the spike and are now holding — rather than a fresh wave of new entrants paying peak rates.
The ORTEX short score stands at 79.9, placing MNTS in the 1st percentile for short score rank — meaning almost no stock in the universe carries a higher short signal intensity right now.
Options traders are not aligned with the shorts. The put/call ratio sits at 0.0048 — nearly 2.1 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 0.0114. That is one of the most call-heavy readings in the past year, with the 52-week low for PCR at 0.0047.
Aggressive call buying against a near-maxed borrow market is a notable tension. One camp is betting against the stock through the lending market. The other is using options to position for upside.
The stock closed at $6.28 on April 27, up nearly 11% on the day and up 62% over the past month. Earnings are scheduled for May 19. The last four earnings events all produced negative 5-day returns, including a -40% move in December 2025.
Data summary
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