MRAM has become one of the more unusual charts in the semiconductor space. The stock has rallied 329% in a month. Shorts are doubling down. And the options market just flipped to its most bearish posture on record.
Short interest hit 7.86% of free float as of May 12. That's up 109% in a single week. Shares short jumped 25% in one day alone — from roughly 1.43 million to 1.80 million shares.
The build is striking given the stock's trajectory. MRAM closed at $44.01 on May 12. That's a 131% gain in seven sessions. Shorts have been pressing into that strength, not retreating from it.
The ORTEX short score sits at 58.7, up sharply from 42.3 on April 28. The score reflects how much short-side pressure has intensified across the past two weeks.
The put/call ratio reached 0.35 on May 12 — the highest level since tracking began. The z-score hit 3.04, more than three standard deviations above the 20-day mean of 0.10.
For most of April, the PCR barely moved above 0.06. The sudden jump signals a material shift in how options traders are positioning. Whether that reflects hedging by longs or fresh directional bets against the stock, the positioning is unambiguously the most defensive it has ever been.
Despite the surge in short demand, the lending market hasn't tightened meaningfully. Availability remains comfortable — cost to borrow actually dropped 60% over the past week to just 0.97% APR. That's near the lowest level in the data.
Short sellers face no friction building positions. Every share they need is available and cheap to borrow. That's the opposite of a squeeze setup.
Both the CEO and CFO sold shares in early May. CEO Sanjeev Aggarwal sold 28,459 shares on May 4 at $19.58, raising $557K. CFO William Cooper sold 11,000 shares on May 6 at $21.75, raising $239K. The stock has since more than doubled from those sale prices.
Net insider selling over the past 90 days totals approximately $990K.
Needham raised its price target to $18.50 from $14.00 on April 30 — a move made before the stock's latest surge. The mean analyst target of $15.75 is now less than half the current price.
The earnings catalyst was an April 29 report that sent shares up 43% in a single day. A $40M U.S. defense R&D award and a strategic agreement with Microchip have anchored the bull case. An additional event is scheduled for May 21.
Key data summary:
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