GROW reports its latest quarterly results today against a backdrop of almost negligible short-side pressure — a striking setup for a micro-cap asset manager where bearish positioning has essentially evaporated.
Short sellers have retreated sharply. Short interest has collapsed 65% over the past month to just 0.02% of the free float — a level so thin it barely registers. With an ORTEX short score of 27, the borrow market reflects a near-total absence of conviction from bears. Availability is plentiful, cost to borrow a modest 4.3%, and the lending pool is almost entirely untouched. This is not a stock that short sellers are positioning around.
Options positioning has edged slightly more defensive ahead of the print, though not dramatically so. The put/call ratio moved up to 0.12, above its 20-day average of 0.09 — but with a z-score below 1, it reads as a minor tilt rather than a meaningful hedge. Call open interest still dwarfs put activity, which means the options market is not pricing in fear. The stock itself is essentially flat on the year, down about 2.7% on the week to $2.55, after a modest 1.2% gain over the prior month.
Ownership tells the most interesting story heading into the print. CEO Frank Holmes holds 20.9% of outstanding shares — the dominant position in the register — and a cluster of active managers has been adding meaningfully. North Star Investment Management built a position of 395,000 new shares as of March-end, while CWA Asset Management added 208,000 shares over the same period. The most recent insider purchase on record is a CEO buy at $3.23 in September 2022, though no insider activity has been recorded since, making that data too dated to carry forward as current signal.
The last two earnings events both produced modest positive reactions. The February 2026 print generated a roughly 2.8% gain on the day. The November 2025 print saw a 1.3% decline that extended to a 3.0% five-day loss. The pattern is modest moves in either direction — this has not been a stock that makes large one-day swings around results.
Today's report is therefore less about whether short sellers are positioned for disappointment and more about whether institutional buyers who have been quietly building exposure will see the fundamental case confirmed.
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