CRISPR Therapeutics enters mid-May with one of the most heavily shorted profiles in the gene-editing space — yet the lending market has loosened meaningfully from its April extremes, creating a tension at the heart of the current setup.
Short interest stands at 23.4% of the free float, with roughly 22.3 million shares borrowed as of May 12. That is a substantial position — placing CRSP in the 2nd percentile of all stocks by short score rank and carrying an ORTEX short score of 82. What has changed in recent weeks, however, is the direction of travel. Short interest peaked near 23.9% in mid-April and has since eased by about 1.4 percentage points. The week ending May 12 saw a 4% rise in borrowed shares — the counter-trend is worth watching — but the broader tape remains one of gradual short covering since the April highs.
The borrow environment tells a more interesting story. Availability tightened severely in mid-April: cost to borrow spiked to 3.39% on April 16 and the lending pool hit 100% utilisation across three consecutive sessions. That pressure has since eased considerably. Cost to borrow has fallen back to around 1.07% — well off the April spike, though 23% above where it was a week ago. Availability has opened back up to roughly 77% utilisation, compared with full depletion a month ago. The implication is that the acute borrow squeeze has passed. New short positions are no longer expensive to initiate, which removes one of the mechanical triggers for a forced cover.
Options positioning is mildly more cautious than usual but not alarming. The put/call ratio at 0.61 is modestly above its 20-day average of 0.58, a z-score of just 0.54. That is not the kind of defensive skew that typically signals heavy institutional hedging. Earlier this month, the ratio briefly hit its 52-week high of 0.69 — suggesting options traders were more defensive heading into early May — but that has since partly unwound. The overall options picture is neutral-to-slightly-defensive, not a crowded protection trade.
Analyst opinion has nudged higher since Q1 results. Bernstein raised its target to $56 from $50 today while maintaining a Market Perform rating — a conservative view from a firm still below the current price of $52.83. Citi was more constructive last week, lifting its Buy-rated target to $82 from $80 after the earnings print. The mean analyst target of $72.52 implies roughly 37% upside to current levels, though the range is wide: TD Cowen holds a $45 target while Piper Sandler sits at $110. The bull case rests on the gene-editing pipeline, a strong cash buffer ($1.35 billion in net cash against a net loss run-rate of roughly $480 million annually), and the Casgevy partnership with Vertex. The bear case centres on trial risk, Casgevy's slow commercial ramp, and IP litigation exposure.
Institutional ownership adds a notable layer. ARK Investment Management holds 11.7% of shares — the single largest block — and added 791,566 shares through April. BlackRock added 457,833 shares in the same period. Both represent active increments, not passive drift. GSK Equity Investments holds a strategic 3.3% stake, a reminder that CRSP carries both speculative and corporate-partnership interest. On the insider side, the CEO, CFO, and General Counsel all sold shares in March, predominantly against earlier RSU awards — routine in structure and low in significance given the award activity on the same dates.
Earnings history is relevant context here. The May 4 Q1 report produced a +1.5% next-day move and a +4.6% five-day return — a mild positive reaction. The February print generated a sharp +9.8% next-day move and +13.1% over five days. With no next scheduled event flagged yet, the stock is trading on pipeline newsflow and macro biotech sentiment rather than an immediate earnings catalyst. Days-to-cover of 15.4 at FINRA-reported levels underscores that unwinding the short position at current volumes would take time — a structural feature that keeps any positive catalyst amplified. The next read on whether shorts are rebuilding or continuing to ease will be the key data point to track into June.
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