AKA enters its May 20 earnings call with short sellers rapidly unwinding positions — a notable shift for a stock that spent much of April building bearish bets.
Short interest has fallen sharply over the past month, dropping nearly 19% on the week and 17% over the past month to just 0.09% of the free float. The scale of that retreat is the week's defining move. From a peak of around 11.7 million shares short in early May, the position has collapsed to roughly 9.4 million. That's not a crowded short by any measure — at 0.09% of float, bears have effectively walked away ahead of the print.
The borrow market reinforces the picture, though with a twist. Cost to borrow is running at 26.8% — elevated for a stock this size, and sticky. It barely moved over the week despite the short covering. Availability has opened considerably, with utilization now barely above 1%, down from above 4% in late April. That combination — high borrow cost but ample availability — suggests the infrastructure for shorting is intact even as active positioning has collapsed.
The lone analyst voice covering AKA is emphatically bullish. Small Cap Consumer Research reiterated a Buy and a $30 price target as recently as May 13, just days before the earnings event. With the stock at $11.73, that $30 target implies nearly 160% upside in the bull thesis. Telsey Advisory Group is more measured, maintaining a Market Perform at $13. The gap between the two is wide. Bulls point to expansion across Princess Polly and Petal & Pup, a growing US store footprint, and traction with Gen Z and Millennial shoppers. Bears flag real risk: the supply chain pivot away from China is creating gaps in newness for the core brands, and early-stage physical retail carries real cost drag. The EPS surprise factor score ranks in the 89th percentile — the company has a strong recent track record of beating estimates — and forward EPS growth sits in the 77th percentile. Against that, momentum scores are weak at just the 15th percentile, and the stock trades at a negative P/E and a price-to-book below 0.5, reflecting the market's uncertainty about the path to sustained profitability.
Ownership is tightly held. Summit Partners controls nearly 56% of shares, with founders and related insiders holding the bulk of the remainder. Institutional coverage beyond that inner circle is thin — Vanguard, Geode and Renaissance Technologies hold token stakes. The most recent insider transaction on record is a modest Director sale from Ilene Eskenazi in November 2025. There is nothing in the insider register pointing to unusual conviction in either direction heading into this week.
Among peers, GCO fell 9% on the week and SIG dropped 6% — suggesting the broader specialty apparel and accessories group is under pressure. AKA bucked that with a 4% gain over the same period, closing at $11.73. The divergence is worth watching: either AKA is outperforming on genuine earnings optimism, or the move reflects the short covering itself rather than fundamental re-rating.
The key question at the May 20 call is whether Princess Polly's supply chain adjustments have translated into restored in-stock levels — and what management says about margin recovery heading into the second half.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open AKA on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
